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Social  Legislation  and 
Social  Activity 

Being  Addresses  delivered  at  the  Sixth 

Annual    Meetinor  of   the  Ameri- 

can    Academy  of  Political 

and  Social  Science  of 

Philadelphia 


Published  for  the  American  Academy  of  Political 

and  Social   Science  of  Philadelphia,   by 

McClure,  Phillips  &  Company 

New    York 

1  902 


1 


^^ 


1 


CONTENTS 


PART  I 
THE  ANNUAL  ADDRESS 


.\  1  PAGE 

'j  SOCIAL    EFFECTS   OF   TRANSPORTATION i 

!j^  Hon.  Martin   A.  Knapp,  Chairman  United  States  Interstate  Commerce 

—  Commission 


PART  II 
INDUSTRIAL    CONCILIATION    AND    ARBITRATION 

INDUSTRIAL  CONCILIATION  AND  ARBITRATION 19 

Hon.  Marcus  A.  Hanna,  United  States  Senator  from  Ohio 

LIMITATIONS  OF  CONCILIATION  AND  ARBITRATION 27 

Samuel  Qompers,  Esq.,  President  American  Federation  of  Labor 

RESULTS      ACCOMPLISHED      BY      INDUSTRIAL       DEPARTMENT, 

NATIONAL  CIVIC  FEDERATION 35 

Hon.  Oscar  S.  Straus,  formerly  United  States  Minister  to  Turkey 

CO-OPERATION  OF  LABOR  AND  CAPITAL 43 

William    H.  Pfahler,  Esq.,   Executive  Committee  on  Industrial  Arbi- 
tration and  Concihation,  National  Civic  Federation 

HARMONIZING  LABOR  AND  CAPITAL  BY  MEANS  OF  INDUSTRIAL 

PARTNERSHIP 59 

Alexander  Purves,  Esq.,''Treasurer  Hampton  Institute,  Va. 


PART  III 
THE    HOUSING    PROBLEM 

TENEMENT    HOUSE    REGULATION:    THE    REASONS    FOR    IT;  ITS 

PROPER  LIMITATIONS cSi 

Hon.  Robert  W.  De  Forest,  Tenement  House  Commissioner,  Greater 
New  York 

(iii) 


iv  Contents 

PAGE 

HOUSING  PROBLEM  IN  CHICAGO 97 

Miss  Jane  Addams,  Hull  House,  Chicago 

CERTAIN  ASPECTS    OF    THE    HOUSING    PROBLEM  IN  PHILADEL- 
PHIA  109 

Report  prepared  by  the  Octavia  Hill  Association 

HOUSING  CONDITIONS  IN  BOSTON ' 121 

Robert  Treat  Paine,  Esq.,  Boston 

HOUSING  CONDITIONS  IN  JERSEY  CITY 137 

Miss  Mary  B.  Sayles,  Fellow  College   Settlements  Association 


PART    IV 
THE    CHILD    LABOR    PROBLEM 

CHILD  LABOR  LEGISLATION 153 

rirs.  Florence  Kelley,  Secretary  National  Consumers'  League 

CHILD  LABOR  IN  THE   DEPARTMENT   STORE 165 

Franklin  N.  Brewer,  Esq.,  General  Manager  Wanamaker  Store,  Phila- 
delphia 

NECESSITY  FOR  FACTORY  LEGISLATION  IN  THE    SOUTH     ....     179 
Hayes   Robbins,  Esq.,  Dean,  Institute  of  Social  Economics,  New  York 

CHILD   LABOR  IN  NEW  JERSEY 189 

Hugh    F.    Fox,    Esq.,    President  New    Jersey   State    Board   Children's 
Guardians 

CHILD  LABOR  IN  BELGIUM 201 

Ernest  Dubois,  Professor  of  the  University  of  Ghent 

MACHINERY  AND  LABOR .    .    221 

Henry    White,    Esq.,    General    Secretary   United   Garment   Workers  of 
America 


PART  V 
FACTORY    LEGISLATION    AND    INSPECTION 

TENDENCIES    OF    FACTORY    LEGISLATION    AND    INSPECTION    IN 

THE  UNITED  STATES      233 

Sarah  S.  Whittelsey,  Ph.  D.,  New  Haven,  Conn. 


Contents  v 

PART  VI 
JUVENILE    COURTS 

PAGE 

PROBATION  AND  JUVENILE   COURTS 257 

Mrs.  Emily  E.  Williamson,  President  New  Jersey  State  Conference  of 
Charities  and  Corrections 

THE  JUVENILE  COURT  IN  PHILADELPHIA 269 

Hon.    Abraham    fl.    Beitler,    Court   of  Common   Pleas    No.    I,    Phila- 
delphia 

JUVENILE  COURTS  IN  BUFFALO 277 

Frederic  Almy,  Secretary  Charity  Organization  Society,  Puffalo 

PART    VII 

PROCEEDINGS  OF  AxNNUAL  MEETING 287 


I.  The  Annual  Address 

Social  Effects  of  Transportation 

By  Honorable  Martin  A.  Knapp,  Chairman  United  States  Inter- 
State  Commerce  Commission 


(vii) 


SOCIAL    EFFECTS   OF    TRANSPORTATION 


By  Honorable  Martin  A.  Knapp 
Chairman  of  Interstate  Commerce  Commission,  Washington,  D.  C. 


The  progress  of  mankind  in  devising  means  of  transportation 
embraces  three  distinctive  stages.  The  primitive  man  traveled 
on  foot  and  moved  his  scanty  belongings  with  his  own  muscle ;  and 
we  can  only  imagine  the  ages  that  elapsed  before  he  secured  any 
aid  for  the  transfer  of  his  person  or  his  property  other  than  his  own 
bodily  powers. 

Probably  the  first  contrivance  for  carriage  was  a  rough-hewn 
plank  or  pole  dragged  upon  the  ground.  Two  connected  planks 
doubtless  formed  the  original  sled.  Finally  the  idea  was  con- 
ceived— some  accident  suggesting  it — of  lessening  friction  by  the 
use  of  rollers.  The  rollers  gradually  developed  into  wheels,  and 
when  at  last  the  wheels  were  made  in  pairs  which  revolved  upon 
an  axle  the  essential  feature  of  all  subsequent  vehicles  was  devised 
and  employed. 

The  earliest  movement  on  water,  we  may  suppose,  was  equally 
crude  and  simple.  Some  observant  savage  noticed  that  wood  did 
not  sink,  and  later  found  out  by  experiment  that  a  floating  log 
would  remain  on  the  surface  even  when  his  own  weight  was  added. 
The  rude  dug-out  followed  the  discovery.  The  stick  or  limb  by 
which  the  dug-out  was  pushed  and  turned  shaped  itself  at  length 
into  the  lighter  and  more  effective  paddle;  the  hollowed  log  was 
succeeded  by  a  framed  and  covered  structure,  the  paddles  became 
oars;  and  thus  was  evolved  in  prehistoric  times  the  type  of  all 
later  boats  on  lake  and  stream.  It  was  centuries  after  this — no 
one  knows  how  many — before  the  force  of  wind  was  utilized  by 
the  invention  of  sails,  and  when  that  immense  advance  was  achieved 
the  enduring  era  of  ship-building  commenced. 

Roughly  speaking,  then,  we  may  assign  to  the  first  stage  in 
the  development  of  transport  such  results  as  were  obtained  by 
the  muscular  strength  of  man,  whether  applied  directly  to  the 
articles  carried  or  used  in  propelling  the  clumsy  vehicles  and  water 
craft  which  he  had  constructed.     The  motive  power  in  all  cases 


2  The  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 

was  the  unaided  energy  of  his  own  body.  And  no  later  addition 
to  the  resources  then  at  his  command,  it  should  be  observed,  has 
wholly  displaced  the  original  method.  The  natural  powers  of 
locomotion  have  not  only  remained  unabated,  but  have  greatly 
increased  by  experience  and  training.  Indeed,  the  manual  hand- 
ling of  articles  of  property  must  always  be  an  important  incident 
of  ownership  and  exchange,  since  no  mechanical  device  can  meet 
all  the  needs  of  transfer  or  equal  the  delicacy  and  dexterity  of 
our  bodily  organs.  Nor  should  we  overlook  in  this  connection 
the  many-sided  ingenuity  which  has  been  displayed  in  constructing 
and  perfecting  a  great  variety  of  vehicles  for  hand  propulsion. 
The  latest  examples  of  this  ingenuity  are  the  light  racing  shells 
which  can  be  rowed  with  such  remarkable  rapidity,  and  that  unique 
and  fascinating  machine,  the  up-to-date  bicycle.  These  are  at 
once  the  survival  and  the  consummation  of  primitive  transporta- 
tion, that  is  to  say,  transportation  where  human  energy  is  the 
motive  power. 

To  the  second  stage  of  this  development  belongs  the  great 
increase  of  force  which  was  obtained  by  the  subjugation  of  animals 
and  their  employment  for  land  transportation,  and  by  the  use  of 
sails  and  rudders  which  multiplied  many  times  the  efficiency  of 
water  carriage.  When  these  two  results  were  secured,  man  had 
added  to  his  own  bodily  powers  the  superior  strength  of  beasts 
of  burden  and  the  enormous  energy  derived  from  the  winds  of 
heaven.  This  was  an  immeasurable  gain  and  marked  the  begin- 
ning of  that  wonderful  civilization  which  slowly  followed.  The 
animal  kingdom  was  brought  into  service  for  the  varied  functions 
of  land  distribution,  and  the  ship  which  could  be  sailed  and  guided 
made  every  waterway  subservient  to  man's  requirements. 

This  hasty  and  imperfect  outline  brings  us  to  a  fact  of  history 
which  seems  to  me  not  merely  significant  but  profoundly  impressive. 
With  the  subjection  of  animals  and  the  use  of  wind-propelled 
vessels,  both  of  which  achievements  reached  a  high  degree  of  per- 
fection in  the  unknown  past,  the  means  of  transportation,  broadly 
speaking,  remained  unchanged  and  unaugmented  until  a  period 
not  much  prior  to  the  present  time.  It  is  a  long  stretch  of  years 
from  the  savage  cave-dweller  to  the  twentieth-century  man,  and 
this  wonderful  world  of  ours  had  quite  a  career  before  the  present 
generation  was  born.  Long  before  other  agencies  of  conveyance 
were  dreamed  of,  while  ox  and  horse,  oar  and  sail,  were  the  only 


Social  Effects  of  Transportation  3 

means  of  transport,  the  race  had  occupied  most  of  the  habitable 
globe  and  advanced  to  lofty  heights  of  national  greatness.  Strong 
governments  were  established,  vast  populations  engaged  in  varied 
pursuits,  and  opulent  cities  crowded  with  every  luxury.  The 
institutions  of  society  had  acquired  strength  and  permanence, 
the  arts  of  leisure  and  refinement  had  approached  the  limits  of 
perfection,  and  inductive  science  had  laid  firm  grasp  on  the  secrets 
of  nature.  Great  inventions  and  discoveries  had  widened  the 
fields  of  activity,  furnished  the  means  and  incentive  for  multiplied 
vocations  and  opened  up  in  every  direction  alluring  vistas  of 
advancement.  In  a  word,  there  was  the  developed  and  splendid 
civilization  of  little  more  than  threescore  years  ago,  before  any 
new  or  different  motive  power  was  utilized  for  commercial  inter- 
course. 

And  the  weighty  fact  is  that  this  immense  and  complex  organ- 
ism, with  all  its  accumulations  of  wealth  and  wisdom,  its  diver- 
sified employments,  its  agriculture,  manufactures,  business  affairs, 
financial  systems,  commercial  and  political  relations,  civil  and 
social  order — its  very  life  and  potency — was  not  only  fitted  to 
but  dependent  upon  means  of  transportation  which,  as  respects 
their  expense,  speed  and  capacity,  had  not  essentially  altered  since 
the  earliest  tribes  began  to  barter!  Enormous  growth  of  enter- 
prise and  enlightenment,  amazing  progress  in  every  other  sphere 
of  human  effort,  with  motive  power,  which  lies  at  the  foundation  of 
every  activity,  remaining  from  first  to  last  a  constant  quantity! 
Before  the  earliest  recorded  transaction — when  Abraham  purchased 
the  field  of  Ephron  and  paid  for  it  his  "400  shekels  of  silver  current 
with  the  merchant" — the  horse  and  the  ox  were  the  established 
agencies  of  land  distribution;  and  what  better  agencies,  bear  in 
mind,  became  available  at  any  time  thereafter  until  well  along  in 
the  nineteenth  century?  Yet  the  ox  was  as  strong  and  the  horse 
as  fleet,  and  their  powers  were  as  effectively  employed,  in  the  days 
of  the  Pharaohs  as  they  are  at  the  present  time.  Indeed,  no  history 
is  so  ancient  as  not  to  disclose  the  general  use  of  animals  for  the 
purposes  of  carriage,  while  the  vehicles  to  which  they  were  har- 
nessed had  then  been  developed,  in  point  of  convenience  and 
usefulness,  to  a  degree  not  much  exceeded  in  any  subsequent 
period.  Though  differing  considerably  in  appearance  from  the 
wagons  with  which  we  are  familiar,  yet  they  were  constructed  upon 
the  same  principles  and  performed  the  same  functions  as  those 
now  employed. 


4  The  A?tnals  of  the  Amej-ican  Academy 

Similar  progress  was  made  in  ship-building  and  seamanship 
as  far  back  as  history  affords  proof  or  tradition.  There  were  oar 
and  sail,  tides  and  currents,  and  the  inconstant  winds,  long  before 
the  ships  of  the  Phoenicians  brought  back  from  the  East  the  gold 
of  Ophir;  and  what  more  was  there  than  oar  and  sail,  winds  and 
currents — for  all  the  purposes  of  navigation — until,  almost  within 
the  memory  of  men  yet  living,  the  little  steamboat  of  Robert 
Fulton  ascended  the  Hudson  River!  In  this  long  span  of  time,  it 
is  true,  bridges  were  built,  highways  improved,  vehicles  finer 
fashioned,  sailing  craft  increased  in  size,  and  the  mariner's  compass 
led  to  longer  voyages;  but,  nevertheless,  the  forces  by  which 
movement  is  effected,  the  actual  means  of  distribution  on  land 
and  sea,  continued  without  substantial  change  in  character  or 
efficiency  age  after  age  and  century  after  century  until  the  recent, 
the  very  recent,  era  of  steam  locomotion. 

To  my  mind  it  is  a  matter  of  fascinating  import  that  the  long 
procession  of  the  world's  advancement  down  to  the  century  just 
ended  was  conditioned  by  and  dependent  upon  agencies  of  trans- 
portation which  were  themselves  essentially  unprogressive  and 
incapable  of  important  betterment.  True,  there  were  minor 
modifications  from  time  to  time  in  the  line  of  mechanical  adjust- 
ment, but  the  general  methods  employed,  and  the  results  obtained, 
showed  no  marked  improvement  or  material  alteration  from  those 
applied  in  the  earliest  days  of  commerce.  Reduced  to  the  forms 
in  ordinary  use  there  were  at  the  last  as  at  the  first  the  beast  of 
burden  on  land  and  the  oar  and  sail  on  water.  Yet  thus  hampered 
and  restricted  in  the  means  of  transportation,  which  is  the  basis 
of  all  commercial  activity,  there  was  built  up  in  the  long  process 
of  years  the  varied  and  advanced  civilization  which  the  last  century 
inherited. 

Then  all  at  once,  as  it  were,  into  and  through  this  social  and 
industrial  structure,  so  highly  organized,  so  complex  in  character, 
so  vast  in  its  ramifications,  yet  so  adjusted  and  adapted  to  the 
fixed  limitations  of  animal  power,  was  thrust  the  new  mode  of 
conveyance  by  mechanical  force,  and  the  third  stage  of  transporta- 
tion was  suddenly  ushered  in  by  the  employment  of  steam  as  its 
principal  motive  power.  The  advent  of  this  new  and  marvelous 
agency  was  the  greatest  and  most  transforming  event  in  the  history 
of  mankind.  It  wrought  an  immediate  and  radical  change  in  the 
elemental  need  of  society,  the  means  of  distribution.     The  primary 


Social  Effects  of  Transportation  5 

function  was  altered  both  in  essence  and  relations.  The  conditions 
of  commercial  intercourse  were  abruptly  and  completely  altered, 
and  a  veritable  new  world  of  energy  and  opportunity  invited  the 
conquest  of  the  race. 

As  time  goes,  this  revolution  has  been  phenomenally  rapid. 
But  yesterday,  as  it  seems,  and  the  first  iron  track  had  not  been 
laid,  and  even  the  idea  of  steam  as  an  available  motive  power  had 
hardly  been  conceived ;  yet  already,  within  the  limits  of  an  ordinary 
lifetime,  long  lines  of  railway — which  sprung  into  being  as  if  born  of 
enchantment— have  stretched  out  in  every  direction  from  one  end 
of  the  land  to  the  other.  They  have  bridged  the  rivers,  penetrated 
the  wilderness,  climbed  over  mountains  and  traversed  the  deserts 
with  their  highways  of  steel.  There  is  scarce  a  hamlet  so  remote 
as  not  to  hear  the  shrill  whistle  of  the  locomotive,  and  the  clang 
of  its  warning  bell  is  everywhere  a  familiar  sound.  In  the  passing 
of  a  generation  the  railroad  and  the  steamship  have  transformed 
the  whole  realm  of  commerce,  of  industry  and  of  social  life.  The}'' 
have  enriched  every  occupation,  given  multiplied  value  to  every 
pursuit,  added  incalculably  to  the  means  of  human  enjoymenjt, 
and  made  our  vast  wealth  possible;  they  are  at  once  the  greatest 
achievement  and  the  greatest  necessity  of  modern  civilization. 

It  is  little  more  than  sixty  years  since  the  first  steam  road  was 
constructed,  yet  at  this  time,  within  the  limits  of  the  United  States 
alone,  nearly  200,000  miles  of  railway  are  in  active  operation;  and 
of  this  immense  mileage — enough  to  piit  eight  girdles  around  the 
globe — fifty  per  cent  has  been  built  in  the  last  two  decades  and 
more  than  eighty  per  cent  since  the  close  of  our  civil  war,  only 
thirty-seven  years  ago.  Elsewhere  similar  activity  has  prevailed 
during  the  same  period,  until  animal  power  the  world  over  has  been 
almost  wholly  displaced  for  the  purposes  of  transportation.  Not 
only  has  the  railroad  become  the  chief  agency  by  which  inland 
commerce  is  carried  on,  but  its  influence  upon  all  pursuits  is  so 
powerful,  and  its  relation  to  every  phase  of  activity  so  intimate  and 
vital,  that  its  effects  upon  social  welfare  and  industrial  progress 
present  an  inquiry  of  the  gravest  moment. 

No  other  triumph  over  the  forces  of  nature  compares  with 
this  in  its  influence  upon  human  environment.  It  has  directly 
and  powerfully  affected  the  direction  and  volume  of  commercial 
currents,  the  location  and  movements  of  population,  the  occupa- 
tions and  pursuits  in  which  the  masses  of    men  are  engaged,  the 


6  The  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 

division  of  labor,  the  conditions  under  which  wealth  is  accumulated, 
the  social  and  industrial  habits  of  the  world,  all  the  surroundings 
and  characteristics  of  the  associated  Hfe  of  to-day.  The  world  has 
seen  no  change  so  sudden  and  so  amazing. 

The  next  fact  to  be  noted  is  hardly  less  remarkable.  Not 
only  are  the  new  methods  of  transportation  incomparably  superior 
in  speed,  cheapness  and  capacity,  but,  unlike  those  which  have 
been  superseded,  these  new  methods  are  themselves  capable  of 
indefinite  increase  and  expansion.  The  maximum  efficiency  of  an 
animal  is  so  well  known  as  to  amount  to  a  constant  quantity, 
and  this  unit  of  power  is  practically  unchangeable.  Substantially 
the  same  thing  is  true  of  a  vessel  of  given  dimensions  and  given 
spread  of  canvas.  For  this  reason  distribution  remained,  as  1 
have  said,  the  one  fixed  and  inflexible  element  to  which  other 
activities,  however  elastic  and  progressive,  were  necessarily  adjusted 
and  by  which  they  were  limited. 

Now,  a  special  and  most  suggestive  feature  of  transportation 
bv  steam,  electricity  or  other  kinds  of  mechanical  force  is  that  its 
capacity  is  not  only  unmeasured  and  unknown,  but  will  doubtless 
prove  to  be  virtually  inexhaustible.  That  is  to  say,  no  certain 
limits  can  be  assigned  to  the  operation  or  effect  of  these  new  agen- 
cies as  compared  with  those  which  have  been  supplanted.  There- 
fore, speed  may  reach  many  times  the  rate  now  attained,  the  size 
of  vehicles  may  be  greatly  increased  and  the  cost  of  carriage  for 
the  longest  distances  reduced  to  an  astonishing  minimum ;  so  that-, 
as  progress  goes  on  in  developing  the  means  and  methods  of  distri- 
bution, the  habits  and  needs  of  men  will  be  more  and  more  modi- 
fied, with  consequences  to  social  order  and  the  general  conditions  of 
life  which  may  be  far  greater  than  have  yet  been  imagined. 

Among  the  results  already  realized,  which  directly  forecast 
what  will  further  happen,  some  of  the  more  obvious  may  be  briefly 
mentioned.  For  well  understood  reasons  the  speed  and  capacity 
of  water  craft  are  much  superior  to  those  of  vehicles  drawn  by 
animals,  while  the  cheapness  of  the  former  gives  them  a  great 
advantage  over  the  latter.  While  the  old  conditions  prevailed, 
the  waterways  were  mainly  relied  upon  for  the  conveyance  of 
bulky  products.  Commercial  movements  on  land  were,  of  course, 
considerable,  but  the  transfer  of  heavy  goods,  such  as  enter  most 
largely  into  ordinary  consumption,  was  principally  effected  by 
sailing  vessels.      Therefore,  the  fertile  lands  along  the  river-banks 


Social  Effects  of  Transportation  y 

and  the  indented  shores  of  the  sea  were  the  first  to  be  occupied 
for  agricultural  pursuits,  the  exchange  of  produce  for  merchandise 
being  accomplished  by  water  carriage.  The  great  cities  founded 
prior  to  our  time  were  for  the  most  part  located  upon  or  near 
navigable  streams  while  the  masses  of  population  outside  the 
towns  dwelt  within  easy  reach  of  these  natural  channels. 

But  the  building  of  railroads  has  often  deflected  and  some- 
times wholly  altered  the  routes  of  distribution.  In  our  own 
country,  for  example,  notwithstanding  it  is  penetrated  by  numerous 
rivers  which  flow,  generally  speaking,  from  north  to  south,  the 
great  volume  of  traffic  is  carried  by  railways  running  east  and 
west  across  valleys  and  mountains.  Even  where  the  rail  lines  are 
parallel  with  river  courses  they  absorb  the  greater  share  of  freight 
and  passenger  movement.  In  short,  the  routes  of  land  transporta- 
tion in  all  the  principal  countries  of  the  world  have  been  largely 
recast  in  the  last  fifty  years  by  the  changes  from  river  to  rail 
conveyance. 

The  next  most  noticeable  effect,  as  it  seems  to  me,  is  the 
prodigious  increase  of  commerce  under  the  stimulus  of  modern 
agencies.  It  is  estimated  by  Mulhall  that  as  late  as  1820  the 
carrying  capacity  of  all  the  sailing  vessels  of  the  world — and 
there  were  then  no  others — did  not  much  exceed  3,000,000  tons; 
yet  this  is  less  than  one-sixteenth  of  the  tonnage  actually  moved 
last  year  by  the  railroads  of  our  New  England  states.  This  aston- 
ishing growth  in  the  quantity  of  transported  articles,  and  in  so 
short  a  time,  is  sufficient  to  produce,  as  it  certainly  has  produced, 
the  most  important  and  significant  results;  since  the  fact  itself 
indicates  a  current  volume  of  transport  business  compared  with 
which  the  commerce  of  our  grandfathers  seems  like  the  idle  play 
of  children.  Because  of  this  wonderful  speed  and  cheapness  of 
distribution,  the  average  prices  of  food,  fuel,  clothing,  building 
material  and  other  necessary  supplies  have  been  greatly  reduced, 
independent  of  the  standard  by  which  prices  are  measured.  And 
this  cheapening  of  most  commodities  has  in  turn  brought  a  marked 
alteration,  within  a  very  brief  period,  in  the  style  of  living,  dress, 
home-furnishings  and  the  like,  which  makes  the  present  conditions 
of  life  far  more  desirable  and  attractive  than  ever  was  known 
before. 

The  effect  of  this  cheap  conveyance  is  also  seen  in  the  com- 
monness of  pleasure  travel,  the  extent  of  immigration,  the  spread 


8  The  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 

of  population  over  new  territories,  and  in  all  the  employments  and 
surroundings  of  the  people  everywhere.  The  railway  is  not  only 
the  chief  means  of  developing  uninhabited  or  thinly  settled  regions, 
but  the  same  line  may  operate  in  both  sparsely  and  thickly  popu- 
lated districts,  since  an  indefinite  number  of  trains  can  be  moved 
on  the  same  track.  For  instance,  the  200,000  miles  of  railroads 
of  the  United  States  serve  some  75,000,000  persons,  distributed 
through  an  area,  excluding  Alaska,  of  more  than  3,000,000  square 
miles;  while  in  Great  Britain  about  22,000  miles  of  railway  serve 
at  least  45,000,000  persons,  located  within  a  mainland  area  of 
less  than  117,000  square  miles.  Thus,  in  Great  Britain  as  com- 
pared with  the  United  States,  one-ninth  as  much  railway  mileage 
reaches  more  than  half  as  many  persons,  because  of  the  density 
of  a  population  confined  within  a  territory  not  larger  than  one- 
twenty-fifth  of  the  land  surface  of  the  United  States. 

Again,  the  railway  at  once  causes  the  concentration  of  people 
in  cities  and  at  the  same  time  is  the  prime  factor  in  the  creation 
of  cities.  It  is  impossible  that  such  inland  towns  as  Atlanta  and 
Denver,  for  example,  could  have  acquired  their  present  importance 
without  the  facilities  for  carriage  and  intercourse  which  railroads 
provide.  In  1870  nearly  forty-seven  per  cent  of  all  our  people 
employed  in  gainful  occupations  were  engaged  in  farming;  while 
only  twenty  years  later  barely  thirty-six  per  cent  were  following 
that  pursuit.  And  what  is  still  more  suggestive,  the  recent  census 
shows  that  more  than  one-third  of  our  entire  population  live  in 
towns  of  5,000  inhabitants  and  upwards,  as  against  less  than 
seven  per  cent  in  1830.  That  so  great  a  change  has  taken  place 
in  so  short  a  time  in  the  geographic  distribution  of  our  people  can 
only  be  explained  by  the  potent  force  of  steam  transportation, 
while  the  fact  itself  has  a  social  significance  which  can  hardly  be 
overstated. 

In  the  region  west  of  the  Alleghanies  the  railroad  has  been 
the  pioneer  in  opening  up  unoccupied  lands  for  settlement,  while 
the  lines  upon  which  railroads  were  there  built  and  the  points  they 
reached  determined  the  location  and  growth  of  numerous  towns 
and  cities  in  that  great  section  of  country.  On  the  other  hemi- 
sphere, as  is  well  known,  a  wonderful  railway  is  now  pushing  to 
completion  across  the  vast  stretches  of  Siberia,  a  territory  larger 
than  the  United  States  and  Europe  combined,  connecting  the 
capital  of  Russia  with  the  Pacific  Ocean.      The  consummation  of 


Social  Effects  of  Transportation  9 

that  project  cannot  but  have  immense  effect  upon  the  commerce, 
industries,  social  welfare  and  military  power  of  a  large  portion  of 
the  world's  inhabitants. 

In  connection  with  this  should  be  observed  the  rapid  increase 
in  stationary  steam  power  which  has  been  coincident  with  and 
primarily  caused  by  steam  locomotion.  Taken  together  they 
make  up  the  colossal  forces  now  exerted  in  the  fields  of  commerce 
and  industry,  in  comparison  with  which  all  the  power  of  all  the 
beasts  of  burden  is  hardly  worth  the  mention.  And  this  in  turn 
reminds  us  of  the  mutual  action  of  production,  shipping  and  land 
transportation  in  producing  the  stupendous  results  we  everywhere 
observe.  It  is  impossible  that  these  gigantic  agencies  should  come 
into  such  active  operation  without  the  most  vital  consequences  to 
every  phase  of  human  life. 

Take  into  account,  also,  the  new  and  wonderful  means  of 
transmitting  intelligence.  The  obstacles  of  time  and  distance, 
hitherto  so  formidable,  are  swept  away  by  telegraph  and  telephone. 
We  send  our  thought  and  speech  with  lightning  swiftness  to  the 
four  quarters  of  the  globe,  and  hold  all  lands  and  peoples  within  the 
sphere  of  instant  intercourse.  So  recent  is  this  miracle  that  we  are 
still  dazzled  by  its  marvels  and  fail  to  realize  how  powerfully  it  aids 
the  unification  of  world-wide  interests. 

That  this  substitution  of  steam  and  electricity  as  the  instru- 
ments of  commerce  has  been  an  immeasurable  gain  is  witnessed 
here  and  everywhere  by  half  a  century  of  unparalleled  progress. 
Along  these  modern  pathways  the  world  has  literally  leaped.  No 
longer  tied  to  beasts  of  burden,  the  entire  realm  of  industry  has 
been  quickened  and  enlarged;  productive  energy  has  been  invig- 
orated by  new  and  limitless  means  of  distribution;  the  products 
of  the  whole  earth  are  embraced  in  wide  circles  of  exchange; 
all  the  luxuries  of  all  lands  are  brought  to  every  household;  wealth 
has  multiplied  until  we  are  almost  surfeited  with  its  abundance; 
the  genius  of  invention  has  been  stimulated  to  larger  exercise,  the 
sphere  of  thought  grandly  extended,  the  impulses  of  charity 
awakened  to  nobler  activity,  while  keener  sympathy  through  closer 
contact  is  leading  the  race  to  real  brotherhood. 

But  these  manifold  benefits  have  not  been  secured  without 
many  and  serious  dangers.  The  potent  energy  which  produced 
such  marvels  of  utility  and  convenience  has  generated  an  array  of 
forces  which   test  with  severe  strain  the   structure  of  organized 


lO  The  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 

society.  So  radical  a  change  in  the  methods  of  distribution,  and 
consequently  of  production,  was  sure  to  be  attended  with  peril 
as  well  as  beneficence,  and  to  entail  a  series  of  results,  immense  and 
far-reaching.  Passing  by  the  acute  abuses  which  are  incident  to 
the  process  of  development,  for  they  are  transitory  and  must  grad- 
ually disappear,  we  may  well  consider  the  more  profound  and 
permanent  effects,  what  I  venture  to  call  the  economic  effects,  of 
present  and  future  methods  of  transportation  upon  the  whole  range 
of  industrial  activity.  This  brings  into  view  again  the  impressive 
fact  I  mentioned  at  the  outset,  and  suggests  some  graver  conse- 
quences than  those  that  appear  on  the  surface  and  appeal  to  ordi- 
nary observation. 

When  transportation  was  measured  by  the  strength  and 
endurance  of  animals,  only  a  limited  area  could  be  reached  from  a 
given  centre.  Its  slowness  and  expense  confined  all  inland  distri- 
bution within  narrow  bounds.  Only  eighty  years  ago  it  cost  $125 
to  move  a  ton  of  freight  from  Philadelphia  to  Pittsburg,  and  the 
average  price  for  carrying  the  necessaries  of  life  was  not  less  than 
twenty  cents  a  ton  for  every  mile  of  haul.  On  such  a  basis  most 
commodities  were  shut  off  from  distant  markets,  and  farm  prod- 
ucts would  seldom  permit  of  conveyance  more  than  100  or  150 
miles.  Only  such  articles  as  were  of  small  bulk  and  weight  com- 
pared with  their  value  were  moved  to  any  considerable  distance 
from  the  place  of  production.  For  this  reason  the  requirements 
of  an  ordinary  family  were  almost  wholly  supplied  from  nearby 
sources.  And  this  means — without  amplifying  the  statement — 
that  productive  energy,  for  the  most  part,  was  restricted  by  the 
consuming  capacity  of  the  surrounding  neighborhood.  The  forces 
outside  each  separate  circle  were  but  feebly  felt  and  had  little 
influence  upon  its  daily  affairs.  Broadly  speaking,  the  activities 
of  each  locality  were  adjusted  to  its  own  conditions  and  were  prac- 
tically undisturbed  by  like  operations  in  other  places.  What  we 
call  competition  was  held  in  check  by  slow  and  costly  means  of 
conveyance;  its  effects  were  moderate  and  limited,  its  friction 
seldom  severe. 

But  the  use  of  steam  for  motive  power  and  electricity  for  com- 
munication increased  enormously  the  range  of  accessible  markets, 
and  at  once  intensified  competition  by  the  celerity  and  cheapness 
of  distribution.  Industrial  strife  has  already  become  world-wide 
in  extent,  and  distance  an  ineffectual  barrier  against  its  destructive 


Social  Effects  of  Transportation  1 1 

assaults.  For  the  commercial  factor  of  distance  is  not  at  all  a 
matter  of  miles,  it  is  merely  a  question  of  time  and  money.  The 
fact  that  the  cost  of  moving  a  hundred  pounds  of  goods  a  single 
mile  by  wagon  transports  a  ton  of  the  same  goods  by  rail  more  than 
three  times  further  is  some  indication  of  the  effect  of  cheap  and 
rapid  conveyance  in  bringing  remote  places  closer  together.  Our 
grandparents  got  their  supplies  mainly  in  the  localities  where  they 
resided  and  only  a  few  persons  were  concerned  in  their  production. 
To-day  it  may  safely  be  said  that  five  millions  of  people  and  five 
hundred  millions  of  capital  are  directly  or  indirectly  employed 
in  furnishing  an  ordinary  dinner.  When  merchandise  of  every 
description  is  carried  at  great  speed  from  one  end  of  the  land  to  the 
other,  and  at  an  average  cost  of  less  than  three-quarters  of  a  cent  a 
ton  a  mile,  as  is  now  the  case,  the  expense  of  transport  is  but  a 
trifling  impediment  to  the  widest  distribution. 

Nor  should  we  forget  that  it  was  the  opening  up  of  new  and 
ever  enlarging  markets,  by  the  cheapness  of  steam  transportation, 
which  gave  the  first  opportunity  for  the  extensive  use  of  machinery ; 
and  this  in  turn  quadrupled  the  capacity  of  labor  and  greatly 
reduced  the  cost  of  large-scale  production.  By  this  revolution 
in  the  methods  of  manufacture — caused  by  the  railroad  and  steam- 
ship— the  mechanic  was  supplanted  by  the  operative,  and  the 
skilled  and  independent  craftsman  of  former  days  found  his 
occupation  gone.  For  what  chance  now  have  hand-made  articles 
when  the  factory-made  product  is  carried  across  the  continent 
at  nominal  cost?  But  the  factory  without  the  railroad  would  be 
only  a  toy-shop.  If  its  wares  had  to  be  hauled  over  country  roads 
by  mules  and  horses,  the  points  they  could  reach  would  be  few 
and  nearby,  and  thus  contracted  sales  would  limit  the  size  of  the 
plant  and  the  volume  of  its  business.  It  is  simply  because  trans- 
portation is  now  so  speedy,  so  cheap  and  so  abundant  that  great 
establishments  have  become  profitable  and  driven  their  smaller 
rivals  from  the  field. 

These  facts — which  might  be  multiplied  without  limit — bear 
directly,  as  I  think,  and  with  a  force  not  fully  perceived,  upon  the 
whole  problem  of  industrial  competition.  For,  as  the  means  by 
which  industrial  products  are  distributed  become  more  convenient, 
quicker  in  action  and  less  expensive,  the  area  of  distribution 
rapidly  enlarges,  and  as  the  area  of  distribution  enlarges  the  com- 
petition of  industrial  forces  increases  in  something  like  geometrical 


12  TJie  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 

ratio.  The  movement  of  property  by  rail  in  the  United  States 
alone  already  exceeds  three  millions  of  tons  every  twenty-four 
hours.  Think  of  the  rivalry  of  products,  the  strife  of  labor,  the 
strain  and  struggle  of  trade,  which  such  a  movement  implies.  With 
the  constant  acceleration  of  that  movement,  which  is  certain  to 
happen,  how  long  can  the  friction  be  endured?  How  soon  will  it 
become  unbearable  ? 

When  Adam  Smith  wrote  "The  Wealth  of  Nations,"  it  took 
two  weeks  to  haul  a  wagon-load  of  goods  from  London  to  Edin- 
burgh, and  such  a  thing  as  a  business  or  industrial  corporation 
was  virtually  unknown.  To-day  the  great  enterprises  of  the  world 
are  in  the  hands  of  corporations,  and  the  time  is  fast  approaching 
when  they  will  absorb  all  important  undertakings.  Why?  Simply 
because  the  railroad  and  the  steamship — cheap  and  rapid  transpor- 
tation, all  the  while  growing  cheaper  and  quicker — ever  widening 
the  area  of  profitable  distribution,  furnish  the  opportunity,  other- 
wise lacking,  for  the  einployment  of  larger  and  still  larger  capital. 
This  opportunity  permits  and  encourages  the  concentration  of 
financial  resources;  so  that,  within  limits  not  yet  ascertained,  the 
larger  the  business  the  greater  its  possibilities  of  gain.  But  the 
legitimate,  the  inevitable  offspring  of  corporations  is  monopoly. 
Why?  Simply  because  the  operation  of  these  massive  forces — 
impinging  and  grinding  upon  each  other  in  every  market — begets 
an  extremity  of  mutual  danger  which  always  invites  and  often 
compels  a  common  agreement  as  to  prices  and  production;  that 
is,  a  trust.  Just  as  the  implements  of  warfare  may  become  so 
devastating  in  their  effects  that  nations  will  be  forced  to  live  in 
amity,  so  the  destructiveness  and  exhaustion  of  commercial  strife 
in  these  larger  spheres  of  action  may  make  combination  a  necessity. 

Thus  the  potent  agencies  by  which  distribution  is  more  and 
more  rapidly  and  cheaply  effected,  which  so  unite  and  intensify 
the  forces  of  production,  are  fast  altering  the  conditions  and  chang- 
ing the  character  of  industrial  development.  And  the  end  is  not 
yet;  it  outruns  imagination.  What  will  be  the  ultimate  effect  of 
these  methods  of  conveyance  when  brought  to  higher  perfection 
and  employed  with  still  greater  efficiency?  When  these  agencies 
of  commerce  are  increased  in  number  and  capacity,  as  they  will  be; 
when  cost  is  still  further  and  greatly  reduced,  as  it  will  be;  when 
speed  is  doubled,  as  it  will  be,  and  quadrupled,  as  it  may  be;  when 
the  whole  United  States  shall  have  reached  the  density  of  popu- 


Social  Effects  of  Transpoytation  13 

lation  now  existing  in  Great  Britain,  how  can  industrial  competition 
possibly  survive? 

So,   in  the  measureless  and  transforming  effects  of  modern 
transportation,  and  the  ends  to  which  it  resistlessly  tends,  I  find 
the  primary  cause  of  the  economic  revolution  upon  which  we  have 
entered.     The  incoming  of  these  new  and  unfettered  forces  not 
only  changed  the  basic  function  of  society,  but  disturbed  its  indus- 
trial order.     In  the  effort  to  restore  a  working  equilibrium  the 
gravest  difficulties  are  encountered,  and  we  do  not  clearly  see  how 
they  are  to  be  overcome.     Already  we  are  compelled  to  doubt  the 
infallibility  of  many  inherited  precepts  and  to  reopen  many  contro- 
versies which  our  grandsires  regarded  as  finally  settled.     The  pon- 
derous engine  that  moves  twice-a-thousand  tons  across  an  empire 
of  states,  the  ocean  steamer  that  carries  the  population  of  a  village 
on  its  decks  and  the  products  of  a  township  in  its  hold,  are  indeed 
splendid  evidences  of  constructive  skill,  but  more  than  this  they  are 
economic  problems  as  well  which  challenge  and  dismay  the  present 
generation.     They  force  us  to  discredit  the  venerable  maxim  that 
"  competition  is  the  life  of  trade,"  and  warn  us,  I  think,  that  the  po- 
litical economy  of  the  future  must  be  built  on  a  nobler  hypothesis. 
If  it  be  true  in  the  long  run,  as  I  believe  experience  teaches,  that 
where  combination  is  possible  competition  is  impossible,  is  it  not 
equally  true  that  combination  becomes  possible  just  in  proportion 
as  transportation  becomes  ampler,  speedier  and  cheaper?     So  the 
opportunity,    if   not    the    necessity,  for  combination   has    already 
come   in   many  lines  of  activity  and  will  certainly  come  in  many 
more.     The  circu-mstance   that  permits   competition,  its  sine  qua 
non,  is  mainly  difference  of  conditions.     Practically  speaking,  this 
difference  is  chiefly  found  in  the  means  of  distribution.     As  that 
difference  disappears,  with  the  constantly  diminishing  time  and  cost 
of  transport,  the  ability  to  combine  will  enlarge  and  the  inducement 
to  do  so  become  overwhelming.     That  seems  to  me    the  obvious 
tendency  of  our  industrial  and  social  forces  to-day,  and  that  ten- 
dency, I  predict,  will  be  more  and  more  marked  as  time  goes  on. 

In  the  unrest  and  discontent  around  us,  deep-seated  and 
alarming  here  and  there,  I  read  the  desperate  attempt  to  avoid  the 
effects  of  industrial  competition  and  a  tremendous  protest  against 
its  savage  reprisals.  Every  trust  and  combination,  whether 
organized  by  capitalists  or  by  artisans,  is  a  repudiation  of  its  teach- 
ings and  a  denial  of  its  pretensions.      The  competitive  theory  may 


14  The  Amials  of  the  American  Academy 

have  answered  the  age  of  mules  and  sail-boats  and  spinning-wheels, 
but  it  fails  to  satisfy  the  interlacing  needs  or  to  sustain  the  inter- 
dependent activities  which  are  founded  on  modern  methods  of 
intercourse  and  distribution;  it  is  a  theory  unsuited  to  the  era  of 
railways  and  wireless  telegraphy,  this  era  of  ours,  so  restless  in 
thought,  so  resistless  in  action. 

This,  then,  as  I  conceive,  is  the  underlying  question.  Shall 
we  continue  to  enforce  with  precept  and  penalty  the  rule  of  com- 
petition, whose  cruel  creed  is  "every  man  for  himself,"  or  shall  the 
effort  and  industry  of  the  world  be  hereafter  conducted  on  a  more 
humane  and  fraternal  principle  ?  That  is  to  say,  is  society — stripped 
of  its  polish  and  altruistic  pretences — is  society  after  all  only  a  mass 
of  struggling  brutes  fighting  for  the  Jaest  places  and  the  biggest 
bones,  and  is  government  simply  an  armed  referee  standing  by  to 
see  that  every  dog  has  fair  play?  In  short,  is  personal  selfishness 
the  ultimate  force  and  individual  greed  the  bottom  fact?  For 
myself,  I  disbelieve  the  doctrine.  I  am  not  terrified  by  the  cry  of 
paternalism  nor  dismayed  by  unreasoning  clamor  at  the  dangers  of 
monopoly.  The  trusts  and  the  unions  are  here,  in  money,  in  labor, 
in  production  and  in  distribution — they  came  with  the  railroad 
and  the  steamship — and  they  have  come  to  stay. 

When  population  was  scattered  and  sparse,  when  movement 
was  difficult  and  costly,  when  communities  were  isolated  by  dis- 
tance and  by  dissimilarity,  and  bonds  of  relationship  were  feeble 
and  few,  the  attrition  of  rivalry  was  complacently  endured.  But 
now,  when  seas  are  spanned  with  steamships  and  netted  with 
electric  wires;  when  city  and  forest,  farm  and  factory,  mine  and 
counting-room  are  joined  together  by  innumerable  pathways  of 
steel,  and  the  swift  locomotive,  rushing  across  continents — like  the 
shuttle  through  the  loom — weaves  this  majestic  fabric  of  commerce 
which  covers  the  globe ;  when  life  is  no  longer  localized  in  effort  or 
achievement,  and  the  thought  of  one  man  is  the  instantaneous 
possession  of  all  men,  the  friction  of  unbridled  competition  has 
become  irksome  and  intolerable.  It  is  folly  to  shut  our  eyes  to 
unmistakable  facts  or  to  stand  in  the  way  of  inevitable  events. 
Doubters  may  deride,  demagogues  denounce,  and  ignorant  law- 
makers strive  to  build  up  legal  barriers;  but  neither  agitation,  nor 
protestation,  nor  legislation  can  stop  the  growth  or  prevent  the 
advance  of  industrial  federation. 

I  much  mistake,  therefore,  if  we  are  not  entering  upon  a  period 


Social  Effects  of  Transportatioti  15 

of  great  transitions,  a  period  of  difficulty  and  many  dangers.  The 
whole  structure  of  industry  and  social  life  is  liable  to  be  subjected 
to  a  strain — possibly  to  a  shock — for  which  experience  furnishes  no 
guiding  precedent.  We  have  settled  the  administrative  questions; 
we  can  collect  taxes,  build  court-houses  and  pay  the  policeman. 
We  have  settled  the  political  questions;  for  the  nation  lives  and 
will  live,  the  greatest  and  grandest  in  all  the  earth.  But  the 
further  test  is  now  to  come,  the  test  of  the  ocean  liner  and  the 
limited  express.  Can  we  settle  the  economic  questions?  Can  we 
raise  this  wide  realm  of  industry  from  selfishness  to  charity,  from 
strife  to  friendship,  from  competition  to  co-operation,  from  the 
warring  instincts  of  the  savage  state  to  the  larger  and  nobler 
needs  of  associated  life?  This  is  the  problem  which  steam  and 
electricity  present  for  solution. 

Will  there  be  a  fourth  stage  and  another  revolution  in  the 
methods  of  transportation?  That  is  to  ask,  I  suppose,  will  the 
puzzle  of  aerial  navigation  find  a  practical  solution?  Whether  it 
does,  or  whenever  it  does,  of  this  we  may  be  certain,  that  the 
varied  products  of  labor  and  skill,  the  endless  commodities  that 
supply  our  ever-growing  wants,  will  always  seek  their  passage  from 
producer  to  consumer  along  the  routes  of  least  resistance.  There- 
fore, it  may  happen,  in  some  bright  and  wonderful  to-morrow, 
nearer  to  us  perhaps  than  we  imagine,  that  the  stubborn  land  over 
which  our  ponderous  vehicles  are  now  dragged  will  be  abandoned, 
even  the  liquid  waterways  discarded,  and  the  vast  commerce  of 
the  future  be  borne  swiftly  and  noiselessly  through  the  yielding 
air.  If  that  marvelous  day  shall  come,  assuredly  will  it  bring  its 
harder  questions  and  press  us  with  its  weightier  demands. 


II.  Industrial  Conciliation  and 
Arbitration 


(17) 


Industrial  Conciliation  and  Arbitration 


By  Honorable  Marcus  A.  Hanna,  United  States  Senator  from  Ohio 


(19) 


INDUSTRIAL  CONCILIATION   AND  ARBITRATION 


By  Honorable  Marcus  A.  Hanna 
United  States  Senator  from  Ohio 


When  I  received  the  kind  invitation  of  this  society  to  come 
to  this  meeting,  I  confess  I  did  not  know  what  I  was  coming  to.  I 
Hke  to  talk  upon  practical  things,  and  there  is  no  subject  to-day 
that  is  nearer  my  heart  than  is  this  question  of  the  relation  between 
capital  and  labor. 

The  subject  assigned  to  me  was  "Arbitration,"  which  I  con- 
sider only  introductory  in  entering  upon  the  discussion  of  a  subject 
as  broad  as  the  one  under  consideration  this  evening.  The  matter 
of  arbitration  might  be  considered  under  two  heads.  Arbitration 
in  business  circles,  by  business  men,  whom  we  may  call  employers 
or  capitalists,  if  you  please,  is  one  phase  of  it,  but  arbitration  to 
settle  differences  between  employers  and  employees  is  an  advanced 
stage  of  it.     It  is  a  progressive  form  of  arbitration. 

To  have  success  in  conciliation,  or  arbitration,  there  must  be 
thorough  and  effective  organization  on  both  sides.  The  large 
aggregations  of  capital,  feared  at  first  by  labor,  may  prove  to  be 
labor's  best  friend,  in  that,  control  of  a  trade  being  thus  centralized, 
there  is  opportunity  to  establish  friendly  relations  which  shall  make 
uniform  conditions  throughout  the  country,  or  large  sections 
thereof,  and  reduce  the  basis  of  competition  to  the  quality  of  the 
product  rather  than  to  the  concessions  forced  from  labor. 

The  growth  of  sentiment  for  arbitration  and  conciliation  has 
been  reflected  in  the  legislation  of  the  various  states.  While 
foreign  countries  made  the  earlier  attempts  by  legislation  to  pro- 
mote the  formation  of  local  boards  of  arbitration,  some  of  the 
states  of  the  Union  were  first  to  establish  permanent  central 
bodies  with  authority  to  mediate  in  labor  disputes  and  to  arbitrate 
matters  referred  to  them.  Sixteen  states  have  established  such 
central  boards,  beginning  with  Massachusetts  and  New  York  in 
1866  and  following,  in  succeeding  years,  with  California,  Colorado, 
Idaho,  Illinois,  Louisiana,  Montana,  Minnesota,  Ohio  Utah,  Wis- 
consin, New  Jersey,   Michigan,  Connecticut  and  Indiana.     These 

(21) 


22  The  Annals  of  the  Americmi  Academy 

central  boards  usually  consist  of  three  members,  an  employer,  an 
employee  and  a  neutral. 

Massachusetts,  New  York,  Ohio,  Indiana,  Illinois  and  Wis- 
consin seem  to  be  the  only  states  within  which  tangible  results  have 
been  accomplished,  doubtless  due  to  the  highly  developed  indus- 
tries prevailing  and  the  frequency  of  labor  disputes  therein.  In 
this  as  in  all  other  matters  of  enforcement  of  public  laws,  successful 
results  depend  upon  the  strong  impelling  influence  of  an  enlightened 
public  sentiment. 

The  United  States  Government  has  established  a  method  for 
arbitration  and  mediation  in  strikes  and  lockouts  upon  interstate 
transportation  lines,  by  virtue  of  its  constitutional  authority  over 
interstate  commerce.  The  act  of  1888  provided  for  a  voluntary 
board,  but  had  no  provision  for  enforcement  of  awards,  and  seems 
to  have  fallen  into  disuse.  In  1898  a  new  act  was  passed  under 
the  terms  of  which  either  party  to  a  dispute  upon  any  interstate 
transportation  line  might  request  the  intervention  of  the  chairman 
of  the  Interstate  Commerce  Commission,  and  the  United  States 
Commissioner  of  Labor.  These  officers  have  no  specific  authority 
to  intervene  on  their  own  motion,  but  apparently  have  the  right 
to  attempt  conciliation  even  in  the  absence  of  an  application  from 
either  party.  There  has  been  no  case  of  arbitration  under  the  act, 
so  its  effect  in  application  is  yet  to  be  demonstrated. 

The  compulsory  law  of  New  Zealand  has  found  no  favor  in 
this  country.  The  hearings  before  the  recent  Industrial  Com- 
mission show  that  the  representatives  of  both  employers  and  work- 
ingmen  gave  testimony  against  compulsory  arbitration.  The 
employers  object  because,  they  claim,  it  would  be  one-sided  owing 
to  the  lack  of  responsibility  on  the  part  of  the  workingmen,  while 
the  workingmen  object  because,  they  claim,  it  would  be  manipu- 
lated to  suit  the  employers,  and,  if  enforcement  carried  imprison- 
ment, it  would  provide  for  a  species  of  slavery  intolerable  in  a  free 
country.  Many  state  boards,  however,  while  not  advocating  as 
a  whole  compulsory  arbitration,  urge  further  legislation  which  shall 
prevent  public  inconvenience  and  loss  resulting  from  strikes  and 
lockouts  involving  public  service  corporations  and  means  of  transit. 

This  condensed  summary  of  the  general  features  of  the  ques- 
tion brings  us  logically  to  a  consideration  of  the  method  or  methods 
best  suited  to  our  time  and  country.  Since  the  great  majority 
interested  on  both  sides,  employer  and  employed,  reject  any  system 


Industrial  Conciliation  and  Arbitration  23 

of  arbitration  which  includes  compulsion  in  its  composition,  experi- 
ments must  be  along  the  line  of  mutual  concession  and  tactful  per- 
suasion. Such  results  may  be  hoped  for,  and,  perhaps,  confidently 
expected  in  the  system  of  mediation  and  conciliation  promulgated 
by  the  Industrial  Department  of  the  National  Civic  Federation. 

That  brings  me  up  to  date.  I  do  not  propose  to  treat  this 
question  from  an  academic  standpoint,  but  to  give  an  expression 
of  my  own  experience,  having  been  a  large  employer  of  labor  for 
more  than  thirty  years,  and  having  studied  that  question  from  the 
standpoint  of  mutual  interest.  My  attention  was  strongly  directed 
to  this  subject  as  far  back  as  1874,  at  the  end  of  one  of  the  most 
severe  and  destructive  strikes  that  ever  occurred  in  Northern  Ohio, 
in  the  coal  mines,  long  and  protracted,  bitter  and  destructive. 
When  it  was  over  both  sides  had  suffered,  and  it  occurred  to  me 
that  there  ought  to  be  some  other  way  to  settle  these  differences, 
and  as  a  result  of  that  we  organized  in  Northern  Ohio  an  organiza- 
tion of  employers,  the  mine  owners,  and  the  men  organized  what 
was  known  then  as  the  National  Bituminous  Coal  Miners'  Associa- 
tion, the  first  of  that  character  ever  organized  in  the  United  States. 
Their  constitution  and  by-laws  provided  that  no  strikes  should 
occur  until  every  other  effort  in  the  right  should  fail,  and  the  em- 
ployers covenanted  that  they  would  give  hearings  and  considera- 
tion to  any  committees  sent  to  them  by  the  union. 

As  a  result,  during  the  life  of  the  organization  on  the  part  of 
the  men,  there  never  was  a  serious  strike.  All  differences,  which 
with  small  beginnings  very  often  lead  to  disastrous  strikes,  were 
settled  by  the  employer  and  employee  coming  together  with  a  proper 
spirit,  with  a  determination  to  do  right.  Upon  that  hypothesis  I 
have  been  working  ever  since,  and  from  that  day  to  this  I  have 
never  had  a  serious  strike. 

The  Civic  Federation  is  the  outgrowth  of  the  evolution  to 
which  your  chairman  has  referred.  This  country  has  grown  greatly. 
Our  industries  have  multiplied,  and  the  opportunities  for  labor 
equally  with  it.  Great  undertakings  are  claiming  the  attention  of 
the  people,  and  this  question  of  labor  and  capital  has  approached 
a  crisis.  This  Civic  Federation  has  adopted  a  constitution  and 
by-laws  covering  simply  the  methods  of  procedure,  and  has  also 
adopted  a  principle,  and  that  principle  is  the  Golden  Rule. 

Now,  Mr.  Chairman,  the  great  productive  capacity  of  this  coun- 
try has  forced  upon  us  the  aggregation  of  capital  and  the  creation 


24  The  Annals  of  the  Ajncrican  Academy 

of  great  material  wealth  seeking  opportunity  for  investment.  This 
rapidly  increasing  wealth  must  find  investment,  and  to  make  the 
investment  in  industrials  secure  we  must  have  industrial  peace. 

The  Civic  Federation  is  beginning  to  lay  the  foundation  for 
such  results,  with  the  hope  that  it  will  appeal  to  the  whole  country 
and  to  all  classes  of  the  people.  We  are  simply  placing  before  the 
American  people  the  opportunity  to  unite  with  us  in  the  accom- 
plishment of  this  purpose,  as  necessary  to  our  social  conditions  as 
to  our  industrial  conditions.  Of  course,  it  is  not  an  easy  task; 
the  conditions  in  the  United  States  differ  from  those  in  any  other 
country  in  the  world.  This  great  cosmopolitan  people,  coming  to 
our  shores  by  thousands  every  year  from  every  country  and  from 
every  clime,  this  coming  together  of  all  classes  and  all  kinds  of  people 
from  the  four  quarters  of  the  globe,  produces  a  condition  of  things 
not  found  in  any  other  country.  It  is  not  an  easy  matter  to  assim- 
ilate such  a  large  number  of  foreign  immigrants ;  they  do  not  under- 
stand our  language,  they  are  not  abreast  with  the  education  of  a 
self-governing  people;  they  do  not  understand  our  institutions. 
Therefore,  it  must  necessarily  be  a  work  of  education,  and  the  Civic 
Federation  is  merely  a  nucleus  to  begin  this  educational  work. 

When  I  make  the  appeal  to  all  persons  and  all  classes  in  the 
United  States  to  join  with  us,  I  believe  that  in  their  hands  ulti- 
mately rests  the  future  of  that  question.  We  may  have  arbitration 
and  we  may  have  meetings  of  our  conciliatory  committees,  but 
unless  we  have  the  sympathy  of  the  people,  who  in  the  end  are  the 
final  arbiters  on  this  question,  we  cannot  hope  to  succeed. 

The  Civic  Federation  is  only  two  years  old,  and  the  Industrial 
Bureau  of  the  Civic  Federation  has  been  scarcely  organized,  but 
seven  strikes  have  already  been  settled  in  three  months.  It  has 
prevented  the  occurrence  of  two  strikes  which  would  have  brought 
from  the  labor  ranks  more  than  two  hundred  and  fifty  thousand 
people,  and  that  has  been  accomplished,  my  friends,  by  simply 
finding  out  to  start  with  what  the  differences  were,  and  who  were 
right  and  who  wrong.  When  men  get  together  with  the  deter- 
mination to  treat  each  side  of  the  question  fairly,  and  when  the 
public  feels  that  the  men  connected  with  this  enterprise  are  thor- 
oughly acquainted  with  details,  men  of  prominence  in  the  country, 
well  known  and  well  understood,  and  are  men  giving  their  time 
for  the  love  of  the  work  and  the  good  they  may  accomplish,  the 
public  realizes  that  it  means  something. 


Industrial  Conciliation  and  Aj'bitration  25 

In  adjusting  the  relations  of  labor  and  capital,  appeal  must  be 
made  to  the  sympathies  of  the  people.  Opportunities  like  this 
to-night  must  be  embraced  to  inform  intelligent  audiences  of  the 
character  of  the  work  to  be  done  and  to  give  them  an  opportunity 
to  contribute  their  mite  and  influence  to  help  the  cause  along.  I 
know  no  city  in  the  United  States  where  we  can  look  for  more  aid 
and  comfort  than  in  this  great  industrial  centre  of  Philadelphia. 
Indeed,  it  was  because  of  this  that  I  was  induced  to  come  here  to- 
night and  discuss  this  question  of  capital  and  labor  before  people 
who  in  every  day  of  their  lives  can  put  into  execution  and  eflfect 
the  principles  for  which  we  are  contending. 

My  experience  has  taught  me,  my  friends,  that  the  employer 
because  of  his  position  has  the  most  to  do,  and  it  must  be  expected 
that  the  employers,  at  least  in  the  beginning  of  this  educational 
work,  should  go  more  than  half  way.  They  provide  work,  and 
are  responsible  for  the  conduct  of  business,  and  upon  them  rests 
the  responsibility  of  seeing  that  the  men  receive  their  share  of  its 
benefits.  We  must  rise  to  a  higher  level,  where  we  can  have  a 
broader  view  of  this  question,  where  we  can  tear  ourselves  away 
from  the  prejudices  which  have  heretofore  stood  between  capital 
and  labor. 

I  believe  in  organized  labor,  and  I  have  for  thirty  years.  I 
believe  in  it  because  it  is  a  demonstrated  fact  that  where  the  con- 
cerns and  interests  of  labor  are  entrusted  to  able  and  honest  leader- 
ship, it  is  much  easier  for  those  who  represent  the  employers  to 
come  into  close  contact  with  the  laborer,  and,  by  dealing  with  fewer 
persons,  to  accomplish  results  quicker  and  better. 

The  trufsts  have  come  to  stay.  Organized  labor  and  organized 
capital  are  but  forward  steps  in  the  great  industrial  evolution  that 
is  taking  place.  We  would  just  as  soon  think  of  going  back  to 
primitive  methods  of  manufacturing  as  we  would  primitive 
methods  of  doing  business,  and  it  is  our  duty,  those  of  us  who 
represent  the  employers,  from  this  time  on  to  make  up  our  minds 
that  this  question  is  one  that  must  be  heard. 

You  are  well  aware  that  there  has  been  a  tendency  in  this  coun- 
try, from  the  very  nature  of  things,  to  what  is  called  socialism. 
Everything  that  is  American  is  primarily  opposed  to  socialism. 
We  talk  about  it  and  regret  that  these  conditions  exist,  regret  that 
there  are  extremists  who  are  teaching  the  semi-ignorant  classes 
labor    theories,  that    proceed  upon  the  principle    that    liberty  is 


26  The  Ajinals  of  the  American  Academy 

license.  This  is  a  condition  which  must  be  met.  It  is  the  duty  of 
every  American  citizen  to  assume  his  responsibiHties  in  this  edu- 
cational work,  and  to  assist  any  organization  which  can  correct 
these  theories  and  these  ideas.  There  is  no  question  concerning 
our  body  pohtic  to-day  that  should  command  deeper  or  more  serious 
thought.  There  is  nothing  in  the  organization  of  society  in  this 
country  that  can  afford  to  permit  the  growth  of  socialistic  ideas. 
They  are  un-American  and  unnatural  to  us  as  a  people. 

In  the  beginning  of  this  work  I  received  great  encouragement 
from  an  address  which  Samuel  Gompers  made  in  Cooper  Union 
Institute,  in  New  York,  about  a  year  and  a  half  ago,  when  he  took 
the  broad  ground  that  in  the  interests  of  labor  there  was  no  room 
for  the  socialist  or  the  anarchist,  no  room  for  men  who  undertook 
to  disturVj  the  principles  of  our  society  and  government.  When 
such  words  came  from  a  man  leading  the  largest  labor  organization 
in  the  world,  a  man  of  advanced  thought  and  of  honest  intent,  I 
knew  that  now  is  the  time  to  strike,  now  is  the  time  to  proclaim 
to  the  American  people  that  in  the  consideration  of  this  question, 
which  sooner  or  later  must  be  forced  upon  us,  we  must  consider 
what  is  for  the  best  interests  of  society  as  well  as  for  our  material 
development. 

If  I  can  impress  these  principles  upon  the  people  of  this  coun- 
try, either  by  word  or  action;  if  I  can  hold  the  attention  of  the 
American  people  away  from  all  selfish  and  political  interests  long 
enough  to  have  them  study  and  investigate  this  great  question,  I 
shall  feel  that  of  all  the  efforts  I  have  ever  made  to  serve  my  country 
and  society  in  any  way,  that  has  been  the  best. 


The  Limitations  of  Conciliation  and 
Arbitration 


By  Samuel  Gompers,  President  American  Federation  of  Labor 


(27) 


THE    LIMITATIONS    OF    CONCILIATION    AND    ARBITRA- 
TION 


By  Samuel  Gompers 
President  American  Federation  of  Labor 


The  subject  under  consideration  involves  the  difference  be- 
tween the  isolated  bargain  made  by  workmen  acting  as  individ- 
uals and  the  joint  or  collective  bargain  made  by  an  aggregation  of 
workers.  The  individual  bargain  made  by  a  workman  with  his 
employer  is  practically  based  upon  the  condition  of  the  poorest 
situated  among  the  applicants  for  the  position,  and  the  conditions 
of  employment,  accepted  or  imposed,  are  fixed  by  the  immediate 
and  dire  necessities  of  the  poorest  conditioned  worker  who  makes 
application  for  the  job.  The  collective  bargain  is  made  upon  the 
basis  of  about  the  average  economic  condition  or  situation  of  those 
who  desire  to  fill  the  position. 

The  individual  bargain  is  made  at  the  entrance  to  the  factory, 
the  shop,  the  mill,  or  the  mine;  the  collective  bargain  is  made 
usually  in  the  office  of  the  employer. 

When  the  period  covered  by  the  collective  bargain  has  expired 
and  the  conditions  under  which  labor  has  been  carried  on  for  a 
specific  period  become  unsatisfactory  to  either  or  both,  a  confer- 
ence is  held  and  a  new  agreement  endeavored  to  be  reached  under 
which  industry  and  commerce  may  be  continued.  When  there  is 
failure  to  agree,  a  strike  occurs. 

The  effort  at  best  in  the  joint  bargaining  or  in  the  strike  is  the 
effort  to  secure  the  best  possible  conditions  for  the  wage  earners. 
Much  as  we  deplore  strikes  and  endeavor  to  avoid  them,  they  are 
the  highest  civilized  expression  of  discontent  of  the  workers  in  any 
part  of  the  world.  China  has  no  strikes.  The  people  of  India 
have  no  strikes,  but  in  the  highest  developed  and  most  highly 
civilized   countries  strikes   do   occur.     In   China,  when  discontent 

(29) 


30  The  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 

arises,  we  see  it  manifested  in  revolution  against  constituted  au- 
thority, the  venting  of  prejudice  against  the  foreigner;  the  stiletto, 
the  bludgeon,  war  brutality  are  the  manifestations  of  the  discon- 
tent of  the  poor  and  of  the  workers  of  those  countries. 

I  am  not  here  to  defend  strikes,  nor  to  find  an  excuse  for  them, 
but  that  we  may  more  clearly  understand  the  subject  to  which  we 
are  giving  attention,  it  may  not  be  amiss  to  at  least  set  ourselves 
right  concerning  strikes.  Our  forefathers,  when  establishing 
our  government,  wisely  reserved  to  the  popular  branch  of  our 
federal  government  the  right  to  control  revenue  and  expenditure, 
a  right  which  had  been  struggled  for  and  secured  by  the  House  of 
Commons  of  Great  Britain.  The  strike  of  labor  is  in  another  form 
the  holding  of  the  purse-strings  of  the  nation,  to  protest  against 
injustice  and  wrong  being  meted  out  to  the  laborers.  It  is  the 
determination  of  the  workers  that  in  the  last  analysis,  if  there  be 
no  other  means  by  which  their  rights  may  be  accorded  and  their 
wrongs  righted,  they  may  say  with  Lincoln,  "Thank  God,  we  live 
in  a  country  where  the  people  may  strike!"  Nevertheless  a  strike 
ought  to  be  avoided  by  every  means  within  the  power  of  every 
man,  capitalist,  laborer,  or  the  neutral  citizen,  and  he  who  would 
not  give  his  best  efforts  and  thought  to  prevent  a  strike  is  scarcely 
doing  justice  to  his  fellow- men,  nor  is  he  loyal  to  the  institutions 
under  which  we  live.  But  I  re-assert  that  there  are  some  things 
which  are  worse  than  strikes,  and  among  them  I  include  a  degraded, 
a  debased,  or  a  demoralized  manhood. 

Labor  insists  upon  and  will  never  surrender  the  right  to  free 
locomotion,  the  right  to  move  at  will,  the  right  to  go  from  Phila- 
delphia to  Camden  or  California,  or  vice  versa,  at  will.  To  achieve 
that  right  it  has  cost  centuries  of  struggles  and  sacrifices  and  bur- 
dens. Laborers,  moreover,  will  insist  upon  the  right  freely  to 
change  their  employment,  a  right  which  they  have  secured  through 
centuries  of  travail  and  sacrifices.  That  right  three-fourths  of  the 
nation  was  up  in  arms  a  little  more  than  forty  years  ago  to  achieve 
for  the  black  man,  and  the  white  laborers  of  America  will  not 
surrender  that  prerogative.  Laborers  are  aiming  at  freedom 
through  organization  and  intelligence. 

The  Industrial  Department  of  the  National  Civic  Federation  is 
erroneously  thought  by  some  to  be  an  arbitration  committee, 
whereas  the  first  purpose  is  to  endeavor  to  bring  about  a  con- 
ference between  employers  and  employees  before  any  acute  state 


The  Limitations  of  Conciliation  and  Arbitration  31 

of  feeling  shall  occur  relative  to  their  diverse  interests.  If  a 
rupture  occurs,  the  committee  endeavors  to  bring  about  a  con- 
ference so  that  arbitration  may  be  resorted  to  if  both  parties  to 
the  controversy  sliall  so  request. 

As  a  rule,  men  do  not  care  to  refer  matters  in  which  they  are 
particularly  and  financially  interested  to  what  are  usually  termed 
disinterested  parties.  They  prefer  to  meet  with  those  whose  in- 
terests may  be  opposite  to  theirs,  and,  each  conceding  something 
in  a  conciliatory  spirit,  endeavor  to  come  to  an  adjustment  and 
agreement. 

Unorganized  workmen  have  a  notion  that  they  are  absolutely 
impotent,  that  the  employers  are  omnipotent,  almighty.  This  is 
typified  in  the  thought  or  expression,  "What  can  labor  do  against 
capital?"  Likewise  the  employers  of  unorganized  workmen 
usually  regard  themselves  as  "monarchs  of  all  they  survey,"  and 
brook  no  interference.  If  any  workman  has  the  temerity  to  ques- 
tion the  justice  or  sense  of  fairness  of  the  employer  or  the  wages 
paid,  he  is  dismissed  and  a  strike  frequently  results. 

No  strikes  are  conducted  more  bitterly  than  strikes  of  pre- 
viously unorganized  workmen.  As  soon  as  such  men  become 
desperate  enough  to  strike,  they  are  transformed;  they  no  longer 
believe  the  employer  all-powerful,  but  attribute  to  themselves  that 
function  and  faculty;  the  touching  of  shoulders  brings  a  new- 
found power  to  their  minds,  of  which  they  never  dreamed  before, 
and  they  look  upon  their  employers  against  whom  they  went  on 
strike  as  absolutely  at  their  mercy. 

The  employers,  in  these  cases,  usually  regard  the  matter  of 
request  to  be  heard  upon  the  question  of  wages,  hours  or  other  condi- 
tions of  employment,  as  dictation  by  their  workmen;  but  whether 
the  strike  is  won  or  lost,  if  the  workmen  but  maintain  their  organi- 
sation, the  initial  step  has  been  taken  for  a  joint  bargain  and  a  con- 
ciliatory policy  in  the  future.  Both  parties  have  learned  a  severe 
but  a  profitable  lesson,  that  neither  party  is  impotent,  and  neither 
all-powerful.  The  organized  labor  movement  in  our  day  is  an 
assertion  of  the  principle  that  there  is  no  hope  that  the  workers 
can  protect  their  interests  or  promote  their  welfare  unless  they 
organize;  unless  they  advocate  conciliation  to  adjust  whatever 
controversies  may  arise  between  themselves  and  their  employers 
and  declare  for  arbitration  with  their  employers  upon  any  disputed 
points  upon  which  they  cannot  agree.     There  are  some  who  advo- 


22  The  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 

cate  compulsory  arbitration.  I  concur  with  Senator  Hanna,  who 
does  not  believe  in  compulsory  arbitration.  Indeed,  voluntary 
arbitration  cannot  be  successfully  carried  out  unless  both  parties 
are  equally  strong  and  powerful  or  nearly  so.  This  is  true  between 
nations  as  well  as  between  individuals.  Russia  never  arbitrated 
the  question  of  the  nationality  of  Poland.  England  did  not  arbi- 
trate the  question  with  Afghanistan,  but  simply  bombarded  her. 
England  in  her  dispute  with  Venezuela  proposed  to  bombard  her, 
and  only  when  the  United  States  said,  "Hold  on,  this  is  of  very 
serious  consequence  to  us,"  did  England  consent  to  arbitrate. 
There  has  never  yet  been  in  the  history  of  the  world  successful 
arbitration  between  those  who  were  powerful  and  those  who  were 
absolutely  at  their  mercy.  There  has  never  yet  been  arbitration 
between  the  man  who  lay  prone  upon  his  back  and  the  man  who 
had  a  heel  upon  his  throat  and  a  sabre  at  his  breast.  Arbi- 
tration is  possible,  but  only  when  capital  and  labor  are  well  organ- 
ized. Labor  is  beginning  to  organize,  and  when  labor  shall  be 
better  organized  than  it  is  to-day  we  shall  have  fewer  disputes  than 
we  have  now. 

Of  the  agreements  made  between  employers  and  employed, 
two-thirds,  if  not  more,  of  the  violations,  of  the  failures  to  abide 
by  the  awards  of  arbitrators,  are  on  the  part  of  the  employers. 
But  if  it  were  not  so,  if  the  awards  were  broken  by  either  one  or  the 
other  side  or  by  both  sides  in  equal  proportion,  it  would  be  better, 
it  would  make  for  human  progress  and  economic  advantage,  to  have 
an  award  violated  than  to  have  the  award  forced  by  government 
upon  either  one  side  or  the  other.  The  employer  if  he  chose  could 
close  his  business,  and  that  would  mean  his  enforced  idleness.  On 
the  other  hand,  if  the  state  entered  and  forced  workmen  to  accept 
an  award  and  to  work  under  conditions  which  were  onerous  to  him 
or  to  them,  you  can  imagine  the  result.  Men  work  with  a  will  when 
they  work  of  their  own  volition,  then  they  work  to  the  greatest 
advantage  of  all.  On  the  other  hand,  if  men  were  compelled  to  work 
by  order  of  the  state,  with  the  representatives  of  the  state  entering 
with  whip  in  hand  or  a  commitment  to  the  jail,  it  would  create  a 
nation  of  sullen,  unwilling  and  resentful  workers;  a  condition  that 
we  do  not  wish  to  encourage;  a  condition  which  would  be  most 
hurtful  to  our  industrial  and  commercial  greatness  and  success. 
It  is  strange  how  some  men  desire  law  to  govern  all  other  men  in  all 
their  actions  and  doings  in  life.     The  organized  labor  movement 


TJic  Limits  <f  Conci/iatioii  and  Arbitration  33 

■endeavors  to  give  opportunities  to  the  workers  so  that  their  habits 
and  customs  shall  change  by  reason  of  new  and  better  conditions. 

We  iiave  our  combinations  of  capital,  our  organizations  and 
federations  of  labor.  These  are  now  working  on  parallel  lines  and 
have  evolved  the  National  Civic  Federation.  Through  the  efforts 
•of  men  noted  for  their  ability,  for  their  straightforwardness,  noted 
for  the  interest  they  take  in  public  affairs,  an  effort  is  being  made  to 
bring  about  the  greatest  possible  success  industrially  and  com- 
mercially for  our  country  v.'ith  the  least  possible  friction. 

One  of  the  greatest  causes  of  the  disturbance  of  industry,  the 
severance  of  friendly  relations  between  employer  and  employees,  is 
the  fact  that  the  employers  assume  to  themselves  the  absolute 
right  to  dictate  and  direct  the  terms  under  which  workers  shall  toil, 
the  wages,  hours  and  other  conditions  of  employment,  without 
permitting  the  voice  of  the  workmen  to  be  raised  in  their  own  be- 
half. The  workers  insist  upon  the  right  of  being  heard ;  not  heard 
alone  at  mass-meeting,  but  heard  by  counsel,  heard  by  their  com- 
mittees, heard  through  their  business  agent,  or  heard,  if  you  please, 
through  the  much-abused  walking  delegate.  They  insist  upon  the 
right  to  be  heard  by  counsel;  the  Constitution  of  our  country 
declares  that  the  people  of  our  country  may  be  heard  through 
counsel.  It  is  a  saying  in  law,  and  I  repeat  it,  though  not  a 
lawyer,  that  he  who  is  his  own  lawyer  has  a  fool  for  a  client. 
The  organized  workmen  have  long  realized  this  truism  and  have 
preferred  to  be  heard  by  counsel,  and  we  say  that  the  political  and 
civil  right  guaranteed  to  us  by  the  constitutions  of  our  country  and 
our  states  ought  to  be  extended;  the  principle  of  it  ought  to  be 
extended  to  protect  and  advance  our  industrial  rights. 

One  of  the  representatives  of  the  Illinois  Board  of  Arbitration 
recently  said  to  me  that  there  were  so  many  cases  of  employers  who 
refused  to  recognize  the  committees  of  the  organizations  of  their 
emplo3^ees  that  the  Board  was  in  doubt  whether  it  ought  to  name 
each  individual  employer  or  simply  group  such  employers  together 
and  give  their  number  in  round  figures.  No  man  in  this  world  is 
absolutely  right  and  no  man  absolutely  wrong.  If  this  be  so,  men 
•ought,  as  organized  labor  has  for  half  a  century  demanded,  and  as 
the  National  Civic  Federation  has  emphasized,  to  meet  in  con- 
ierence  and  be  helpful  in  allowing  common-sense  and  fair  dealing 
and  justice  and  equity  and  the  needs  of  the  people  to  determine 
"what  shall  be  the  conditions  under  which  industry  and  commerce 


24  The  Aiinals  of  the  Americaji  Academy 

shall  continue  to  advance  until  we  shall  be  in  truth  producers  for 
the  whole  world. 

The  movement  for  which  we  stand  tends  to  foster  education, 
not  only  among  the  workmen,  but  among  the  educated;  for  of  all 
those  possessing  crass  ignorance  and  prejudice  regarding  industrial 
matters,  the  educated  man  who  takes  his  cue  regarding  the  labor 
question  from  those  who  are  always  opposed  to  the  labor  move- 
ment and  who  never  takes  the  trouble  to  find  out  the  laborer's 
side  of  the  labor  question,  is  in  the  most  deplorable  condition. 


Results  Accomplished  by  the  Industrial  Depart- 
ment, National  Civic  Federation 


By  Honorable  Oscar  S.  Straus 


35 


RESULTS    ACCOMPLISHED    BY    THE     INDUSTRIAL    DE- 
PARTMENT, NATIONAL  CIVIC  FEDERATION 


Bv  Honorable  Oscar  S.  Straus 


The  contest  between  capital  and  labor  is  as  old  as  the  human 
race,  and  very  likely  will  continue  as  long  as  there  is  employer  and 
workman.  Early  in  the  history  of  our  country,  that  rugged  re- 
former, who  stood  for  much  of  the  liberty  we  enjoy  to-day,  Roger 
Williams,  said:  "What  are  all  the  wars  and  contentions  about,  ex- 
cept for  larger  bowls  and  dishes  of  porridge?"  That  is  putting  the 
question  in  a  very  graphic  form.  This  struggle  for  the  dishes  of 
porridge  is  still  going  on,  and  unfortunately  very  often  through  clash 
and  strikes  the  dish  gets  broken  and  neither  side  gets  any  of  the 
porridge.  We  want  to  save  the  porridge ;  we  want  the  dishes  to 
be  so  large  that  labor  will  get  its  full  share,  we  know  that  capital 
will  take  care  of  itself.  In  these  industrial  contests  there  are  other 
interests  at  stake  than  labor  and  capital — the  general  public, 
greater  in  numbers  than  either  of  these.  The  Civic  Federation 
believed  that  if  it  organized  a  machinery  which  contained  within 
itself  the  representatives  of  both  the  laborers  and  the  employers, 
and  associated  with  these  two  the  representatives  of  the  general 
public,  it  would  have  the  true  basis  for  the  solution  of  the  labor 
question.  You  have  heard  from  capital  and  labor.  I  am  here 
as  the  representative  of  the  general  public. 

The  Industrial  Department  of  the  National  Civic  Federation 
is  composed  of  twelve  men  representing  the  employers,  twelve  men 
representing  labor,  and  twelve  men  representing  the  general  public. 
At  the  head  of  these  three  groups  of  the  Civic  Federation  stand 
Grover  Cleveland,  Senator  Hanna,  and  Samuel  Gompers.  This 
is  the  only  semi-public  office  ex-President  Cleveland  has  accepted 
since  he  retired  from  the  office  of  President  of  the  United  States. 
The  purpose  and  the  objects  of  the  National  Civic  Federation  ap- 
pealed to  his  heart.  His  acceptance  and  co-operation  have  been 
to  us  a  tower  of  strength  and  an  inspiration  for  our  difficult  task. 

The  Civic  Federation  feels  there  is  a  possibility  of  inaugurating 
a  great  work,  of  promoting  a  better  feeling  and  better  relations 

(37) 


28  The  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 

between  the  employers  and  the  workmen,  and  thereby  removing 
some  of  the  chief  obstacles  mihtating  against  industrial  peace.  We 
have  been  criticised;  peacemakers  always  are  I  want  to  answer 
one  or  two  criticisms  that  have  been  made  in  reference  to  our 
organization.  One  of  the  misconceptions  is  that  the  Civic  Fed- 
eration is  a  board  of  arbitration.  Its  purpose  is  to  mediate,  to 
conciliate,  and  only  in  very  exceptional  cases,  when  requested  by 
both  sides,  to  arbitrate  between  capital  and  labor.  It  has  been 
said  that  the  existence  of  such  a  body  would  stimulate  laborers  to 
threaten  to  strike  or  to  strike  or  to  make  demands  which  otherwise 
they  would  not  make,  with  the  hope  that  the  subject  might  be 
brought  before  this  body,  and  that  they  might  thereby  gain  con- 
cessions which  otherwise  they  could  not  hope  to  secure.  It  might 
as  well  be  said  that  preventives  and  curatives  stimulate  disease. 
It  has  also  been  stated  that  we  promote  the  organization  of  labor, 
and  that  organized  labor  stimulates  strikes.  The  Civic  Federa- 
tion's platform  or  statement  of  objects  distinctly  provided  that  its 
province  would  embrace  unorganized  as  well  as  organized  labor. 
The  scope  of  the  Federation  is  embodied  in  the  By-Laws: 

"The  scope  and  province  of  this  Department  shall  be  to  do 
what  may  seem  best  to  promote  industrial  peace  and  prosperity; 
to  be  helpful  in  establishing  rightful  relations  between  employers 
and  workers ;  by  its  good  offices  tb  endeavor  to  obviate  and  prevent 
strikes  and  lock-outs,  to  aid  in  renewing  industrial  relations  where 
a  rupture  has  occurred. 

"That  at  all  times  representatives  of  employers  and  workers, 
organized  or  unorganized,  should  confer  for  the  adjustment  of 
differences  or  disputes  before  an  acute  stage  is  reached,  and  thus 
avoid  or  minimize  the  number  of  strikes  or  lock-outs. 

"That  mutual  agreements  as  to  conditions  under  which  labor 
shall  be  performed  should  be  encouraged,  and  that  when  agree- 
ments are  made,  the  terms  thereof  should  be  faithfully  adhered  to, 
both  in  letter  and  spirit,  by  both  parties. 

"This  Department,  either  as  a  whole  or  a  sub-committee  by  it 
appointed,  shall,  when  requested  by  both  parties  to  a  dispute,  act 
as  a  forum  to  adjust  and  decide  upon  questions  at  issue  between 
workers  and  their  employers,  provided,  in  its  opinion,  the  subject 
is  one  of  sufficient  importance. 

This    Department    will    not    consider    abstract    industrial 
problems. 


Industrial  Department,  National  Civic  Federation  '39 

"This  Department  assumes  no  powers  of  arbitration  unless 
such  powers  be  conferred  by  both  parties  to  a  dispute." 

The  Civic  Federation  recognizes  conditions  and  aims  to  im- 
prove them  in  the  interest  of  the  pubHc  welfare.  Railroad  acci- 
dents do  not  argue  for  the  stage-coach,  but  that  the  railroad  should 
be  better  constructed  so  that  accidents  may  be  more  and  more 
eliminated.  Education  upon  this  great  question  of  labor  and  capi- 
tal is  not  entirely  confined  to  the  labor  side.  We  have  found  in 
our  short  experience  that  education  is  needed  upon  the  other  side 
as  well,  and  if  the  Civic  Federation  succeeds  in  bringing  out  a  more 
conciliatory  spirit  on  both  sides  and  thereby  contributes  to  a  better 
understanding  of  such  principles  as  have  been  laid  down  to-night 
by  Senator  Hanna  and  Mr.  Gompers,  it  will  be  doing  a  very  great 
public  service. 

It  will  perhaps  surprise  some  of  you,  I  confess,  that  before  I 
became  more  familiar  with  this  subject,  I  was  agreeably  surprised, 
to  hear,  in  the  conferences  recently  held  in  the  rooms  of  the  Na- 
tional Civic  Federation,  one  of  the  most  important  officers  of  or- 
ganized labor,  state,  that  he  wished  it  to  be  understood,  that 
organized  labor  does  not  approve  of  sympathetic  strikes,  and  that 
organized  labor  has  come  to  the  conclusion  that  restrictions  of 
output  should  not  be  permitted,  as  all  such  efforts  were  uneconom- 
ical. 

The  chances  for  industrial  peace  in  this  country  are  greater 
than  they  are  in  any  other  country.  The  fact  that  this  conflict 
and  antagonism  have  existed  and  now  exist  in  the  countries  of 
Europe,  is  no  reason  why  the  same  conditions  should  obtain  in  the 
United  States,  and  the  reason  is  very  evident.  In  the  first  place, 
we  are  not  divided  in  this  country  into  permanently  distinct  classes. 
There  is  no  fixed  gap  between  the  laboring  and  capitalistic  classes. 
The  most  successful  capitalists  in  this  country  to-day  are  men  who 
have  themselves  risen  from  the  ranks  of  labor,  men  who  have  been 
the  architects  of  their  own  fortune.  The  large  fortunes  of  to-day 
are  to  a  great  extent  held  by  the  men  who  achieved  them,  and  for 
that  reason  there  is  a  natural  and  closer  contact  between  capitalists 
and  laborers  in  this  country  than  in  any  other.  In  America,  as  a 
rule,  the  great  fortunes  are  not  as  yet  in  the  hands  of  the  second, 
third  and  fourth  generations  and  are  never  likely  to  be  to  any  con- 
siderable extent. 

I  will  refer  but  briefly  to  the  work  the  Industrial  Department 


40  The  Annals  of  the  Aineiiean  Academy 

of  the  National  Civic  Federation  has  performed  since  its  organiza- 
tion in  December  last;  The  first  contest  that  came  up  before  it 
was  the  threatened  clothing  cutters'  strike.  This  strike  affected 
forty  thousand  hands  in  the  clothing  trade.  It  was  announced  in 
October  before  the  organization  of  this  committee,  and  was  to 
go  into  effect  on  the  first  of  January.  On  our  committee  we  had 
the  chief  representatives  both  of  the  clothing  cutters  and  of  the 
manufacturers.  A  meeting  was  called  of  a  section  of  the  com- 
mittee of  the  Civic  Federation,  and  when  the  two  chiefs  of  the  rival 
interests  came  together,  the  trouble  was  satisfactorily  adjusted  in 
the  course  of  ten  minutes.  The  next  matter  that  claimed  our  help 
was  the  Dayton  Cash  Register  strike.  It  began  nine  months  ago, 
or  more,  and  consequently  before  our  committee  was  formed.  We 
were  asked  to  mediate  by  the  Cash  Register  people,  and  we  are 
gratified  to  state  that  that  great  trouble  after  we  had  been  called 
in  was  very  speedily  adjusted. 

The  third  matter  was  the  Union  Iron  Workers'  strike  in  San 
Francisco.  It  began  nine  months  ago,  six  months  before  our  com- 
mittee was  organized.  Our  committee  was  called  in  and  the  ad- 
justment was  largely,  if  not  entirely,  due  to  our  mediation. 

A  number  of  other  questions  have  come  before  us ;  one  was  that 
of  the  paper  manufacturers;  a  general  strike  had  been  decided 
upon  and  we  brought  the  workmen  and  paper  manufacturers  to- 
gether and  they  had  a  conference,  and  as  a  result  postponed  the 
question  of  their  differences  for  further  consideration. 

Then  there  was  the  Boston  Freight  Handlers'  trouble.  The 
Civic  Federation  came  into  that  upon  the  invitation  of  the  Mayor 
of  Boston  and  the  Massachusetts  Board  of  Arbitration;  and 
without  arrogating  to  ourselves  too  much  credit,  I  think  both  of 
those  bodies  concede  that  we  were  of  material  help  in  adjusting 
those  difficulties. 

The  anthracite  coal  controversy  has  been  before  us.  Vou 
know  that  the  springtime  always  produces  a  great  many  labor 
troubles.  They  are  called  the  spring  crop  of  strikes.  I  do  not 
know  whether  we  can  uproot  all  the  seed;  in  fact,  I  know  we  can- 
not. I  think  there  has  been  rather  less  of  it  thus  far  this  spring 
than  usual.  Still  the  entire  spring  has  not  gone  by,  and  we  cannot 
yet  tell  what  may  happen.  At  any  rate,  we  have  brought  together 
the  leading  coal  operators  and  the  leading  representatives  of  the 
coal  miners;  brought  them  face  to  face,  and  that  is  a  thing  that  had 


Industrial  Department,  National  Civic  Federation  41 

not  been  done  before.  They  discussed  their  various  grievances, 
and  the  whole  matter  has  been  adjourned  for  a  month  in  order  that 
each  side  may  consider  and  dehberate.'^ 

There  are  other  important  matters  before  us.  We  are  happy 
to  say  up  to  the  present  time,  which  we  think  is  rather  remarkable, 
we  have  as  yet  had  no  failure  to  report."  I  am  proud  to  say  this 
because  I  am  afraid  in  another  year,  should  you  have  Senator 
Hanna  and  ^Ir.  Gompers  before  you,  they  may  not  be  able  to  bear 
witness  to  so  good  a  report.  I  \vill  say,  however,  that  at  the  con- 
ference in  December,  where  there  were  present  the  representatives 
of  two  million  organized  laborers  and  of  the  leading  employers  of 
the  country,  we  were  impressed  with  the  desire  of  these  men  to 
endeavor  to  find  a  common  ground  upon  which  they  might  arrive 
at  a  better  understanding.  The  representatives  of  labor  in  their 
treatment  of  the  subject  were  highminded  and  liberal  in  their 
views ;  I  think  I  am  voicing  the  sentiments  of  everyone  of  my  col- 
leagues in  the  Civic  Federation  when  I  say  that  such  men  as 
Gompers,  Mitchell,  Sargent  and  Duncan  have  given  every  evi- 
dence of  being  conservative,  patriotic  and  considerate  of  the  public 
welfare. 

In  conclusion,  permit  me  to  say  that  the  powers  of  the  Civic 
Federation  are  entirely  voluntary,  and  that  its  effective  force  is 
public  opinion.  We  can  advise,  endeavor  to  conciliate,  remove 
misunderstandings,  and  invite  both  sides  of  the  controversy  to 
come  together  and  confer.  We  cannot  compel,  except  by  the 
force  of  reason  and  public  opinion.  We  may  invite  to  arbitration ; 
we  may  upon  recj^uest  of  both  sides  arbitrate.  Arbitration  is  a 
powerful  weapon,  and  experience  has  shown  that  the  side  in  the 
wrong  is  the  first  to  object,  upon  the  ground,  "There  is  nothing  to 
arbitrate."  That  answer  is  itself  a  confession  of  wrong.  It  was 
Penn's  famous  maxim,  "We  must  concede  the  liberties  we  de- 
mand." If  both  sides  to  this  controversy  will  bear  that  maxim 
in  mind,  much  trouble  can  be  avoided.  That  maxim  implies  that 
organization  on  the  one  side  justifies,  if  it  does  not  compel,  organi- 
zation on  the  other  side ;  and  each  side  must  concede  the  rights 
which  it  claims  for  itself,  and  any  contest  waged  upon  principles 
which  conflict  wdth  such  concessions  the  public  will  not  justify. 

*  This  statement  was  made  April  5,  1902. 

'  A  strike  was  declared  in  the  anthracite  mines  in  May,  1902,  and  had  not  been  settled  when 
this  paper  went  to  press. — Editor. 


42  The  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 

The  refusal  to  recognize  conditions  does  not  change  those  condi- 
tions, and  often  embitters  the  relations  that  exist  between  the 
respective  sides.  The  mission  of  the  Civic  Federation  is  one  of 
peace,  and  like  all  peacemakers  will  doubtless,  as  time  runs  on, 
come  in  for  abuse  and  misinterpretation  of  its  purposes.  We  are 
prepared  for  this  reward,  and  so  long  as  we  remain  true  to  our  mis- 
sion, and  that  we  will  so  remain  our  membership  is  a  guarantee, 
no  amount  of  abuse  will  cause  us  to  flinch  from  the  duty  that  is 
before  us. 


Co-operation  of  Labor  and  Capital 


By  W.  H.  Pfahler  National  Association  of  Iron  Founders 


(43) 


CO-OPERATION   OF    LABOR   AND   CAPITAL 


By  W.  H.  Pfahler 
National  Association  of  Iron  Founders 


There  is  no  subject  of  greater  general  importance  before  the 
world  to-day,  none  more  simple  in  its  character,  and  yet  none  so 
handicapped  by  fanaticism,  as  that  of  the  relation  of  employer  and 
employee. 

Remove  the  curtain  between  the  two  real  parties  to  the  con- 
troversy, which  is  often  held  by  men  of  selfish  purpose  on  both 
sides,  and  you  behold  two  simple  factors,  the  wage-payer  and  the 
wage-earner,  each  dependent  upon  the  other  and  both  serving  the 
same  master,  the  great  consuming  public,  of  which  they  are  also 
equal  and  very  important  parts. 

The  wage-payer,  being  directly  in  contact  with  the  purchasing 
consumer,  claims  that  he  must  have  a  result  in  production  equal 
in  every  way  to  the  wages  paid,  while  the  wage-earner  contends 
that  he  must  have  a  wage  equivalent  to  his  contribution  in  time, 
energy  and  skill,  to  the  article  produced. 

Every  visible  article  of  use,  for  food,  clothing  or  shelter,  of 
necessity,  luxury  or  culture,  represents  three  component  parts,  and 
the  production  of  each  such  article  depends  upon  the  proper  com- 
"bining  of  these  parts,  which  are:  ist.  Raw  material.  2d.  Capital. 
3d.  Labor. 

Raw  material,  supplied  by  nature,  is  controlled  only  by  the 
law  of  supply  and  demand,  except  when  bv  legislation  the  natural 
law  is  for  a  time  superseded,  and  it  then  becomes  a  matter  of  polit- 
ical action,  in  which  the  entire  community,  except  the  few  who  are 
directly  interested  in  profit,  join  to  abolish  the  corrupt  legislation 
and  restore  the  natural  condition.  Raw  material  is,  therefore,  the 
basis  of  cost  in  determining  the  price  of  every  product  to  the  public. 

Labor,  whether  skilled  or  unskilled,  engaged  in  the  reduction 
of  the  raw  material  to  the  finished  product,  is  also  dependent  upon 
the  law  of  supply  and  demand  to  fix  its  value  or  wage;  and  any 
effort  to  change  this  value  brings  the  wage-earner  in  direct  conflict 
with  the  consumer,  through  his  representative,  the  employer,  whose 
duty  it  is  to  know,  and  who  usually  does  know,  what  proportion 
of  the  entire  cost  of  any  article  can  be  distributed  in  wage  so  as  to 

(45) 


46  TJie  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 

retain  the  value  of  the  article  at  a  price  not  in  excess  of  the  ability 
of  the  consumer  to  purchase,  and  yet  within  limits  which  will  pre- 
vent a  more  favored  nation  or  district  from  furnishing  the  same 
article  in  competition,  and  thereby  cause  idleness  for  the  wage- 
earner  and  loss  to  the  employer. 

Capital  represents  plant,  machinery,  transportation,  interest, 
and  all  the  factors  known  as  unproductive,  and  yet  absolutely 
essential  for  the  combination  of  material  and  labor.  Capital  is 
usually,  though  not  always,  the  owner  of  material  and  the  direct 
employer  of  labor,  and  therefore  must  stand  for  the  silent  partner 
in  the  combination.  What  is  so  frequently  called  a  war  between 
capital  and  labor  is  simply  an  effort  on  the  part  of  the  wage-earner 
and  wage-payer  to  determine  what  part  of  the  product  of  labor,  as 
distinct  from  material,  is  represented  in  the  price  to  the  public,  and 
after  deducting  the  proper  charge  for  plant,  etc.,  how  the  balance, 
which  is  profit,  shall  be  divided  between  the  employer  and  the 
employee, — or  wage-payer  and  wage-earner. 

The  growth  of  prosperity  in  this  country  has  always  been  in 
ratio  to  increased  production,  and  until  a  recent  period  such 
increased  production  has  been  the  direct  result  of  the  co-operation 
of  the  wage-earner  and  the  wage-payer  In  the  beginning  of  our 
commercial  history  it  was  only  necessary  for  one  man  to  exchange 
the  product  of  his  own  industry  for  that  of  other  men  to  obtain  the 
necessities  of  life,  and  then  the  results  of  labor  were  not  measured 
by  a  unit  of  value  or  wage,  but  by  the  amount  of  energy  expended 
in  production. 

When  the  rapid  growth  of  tlie  country  required  greater  pro- 
ductiveness, and  the  enlargement  of  territory  made  necessary  a 
change  in  the  distribution  of  the  products  of  labor,  the  factory 
system  was  introduced,  whereby  capital,  or  unproductive  labor, 
was  joined  with  productive  labor  to  accoinplish  greater  results  than 
had  heretofore  been  attained  by  individual  labor. 

This  brought  with  it  the  employment  of  a  number  of  wage- 
earners  under  the  direction  of  one  or  more  emplo3'ers,  or  wage- 
payers,  and  made  it  necessary  to  determine  the  relation  of  one  to 
the  other,  or  rather  the  share  each  should  have  in  the  division  of 
profits. 

All  conflicts  which  have  ever  arisen  between  men  upon  any 
subject,  whether  social,  political  or  religious,  have  been  based,  not 
upon  difference  in  conditions  really  existing,  but  upon  difference 


Co-opcratioii  of  Labor  and  Capital  47 

of  opinion  as  to  the  relation  which  existed  between  the  parties  to 
the  conflict;  and  strife,  to  a  greater  or  less  extent,  has  been  brought 
into  use  to  determine  such  position. 

An  excess  of  power  on  one  side  or  the  other  succeeded  in  estab- 
lishing for  a  time  the  opinion  of  the  victor,  but  never  removed  the 
cause  of  dispute;  and  so  the  organization  of  wage-earners  into 
associations  or  unions  enabled  them  to  establish  from  time  to  time, 
by  power  which  they  never  hesitated  to  exercise,  such  wages  and 
conditions  as  in  their  opinion  were  fair  to  them,  but  not  always  in 
accord  with  the  condition  of  supply  and  demand. 

From  their  struggle  arose  the  continual  change  of  wages  in 

.ratio  to  the  power  of  either  party,  the  employer  lowering  wages 

when  by  reason  of  limited  demand  he  could  limit  production,  and 

the  employee  raising  wages  when  his  services  were  in  sufficient 

demand  to  enable  him  to  do  so. 

The  union  was  able  in  man}^  cases, —  I  ma}^  say  in  all  cases, — 
to  enforce  its  demands  because  of  the  combined  power  it  could 
exercise  against  the  individual  employer,  and,  as  is  usual  in  such 
cases,  soon  began  to  exercise  a  power  which  was  unnatural  and 
unwarranted.  The  result  of  this  was  the  necessity  of  forming  an 
organized  opposition  to  their  force  by  creating  an  opposing  force 
in  the  organization  of  the  employer  class,  and  this  brings  me  to  the 
history  of  two  organizations  of  this  character  with  which  I  have  . 
been  closely  identified  during  the  past  fifteen  years,  and  which  have 
been  successful  in  establishing  a  new  basis  of  relation  between  the 
employer  and  employee. 

Fifteen  years  ago  the  industry  in  which  I  am  engaged  was  in 
perpetual  conflict,  involving  three  or  four  strikes  or  lock-outs 
every  year,  causing  great  loss  in  time  and  money  to  employer  and 
employee.  Unable  longer  to  endure  the  strain;  an  association  was 
formed  of  about  fifty  of  the  leading  firms  engaged  in  the  business, 
for  the  sole  purpose  of  defending  the  members  against  the  unjust 
demands  of  their  employees.  It  was  decided  to  create  a  large  fund 
for  the  purpose  of  carrying  on  a  warfare  against  the  union  to  which 
our  men  belonged.  Within  a  year  from  the  organization  a  strike 
occurred  which  resulted  in  every  member  of  the  Defence  Associa- 
tion closing  his  shop,  and  the  consequent  defeat  of  the  union.  A 
second  strike  occurred  in  which,  after  many  weeks  of  severe  strug- 
gle, the  union  was  again  defeated  by  the  united  action  of  the  Defence 
Association.     In  the  third  year  of  its  existence,  the  Defence  Asso- 


48  The  Annals  of  the  Aniej'iean  Academy 

ciation  was  invited  by  the  officers  of  the  union  to  appoint  a  com- 
mittee to  meet  a  similar  committee  from  their  organization  for  the 
purpose  of  discussing  some  plan  by  which  strikes  and  lock-outs 
could  be  avoided.  Frequent  meetings  were  held;  many  attempts 
at  forming  a  plan  were  abandoned,  until  finally  it  was  agreed  that 
all  questions  of  difference  between  any  employer,  member  of  our 
association,  and  his  employee,  member  of  the  union,  should  be 
referred  to  a  committee  of  three  from  each  association  for  arbitra- 
tion and  that,  pending  such  action,  no  strike  or  lock-out  should 
occur.  As  a  result  of  this  agreement,  during  the  past  ten  years  no 
strike  has  occurred  in  this  industry,  and  every  point  of  difference 
has  been  amicably  adjusted  by  conference.  Each  year  a  general 
conference  is  held,  at  which  the  wages  are  fixed  for  the  ensuing  year, 
and  such  other  changes  as  may  be  of  mutual  advantage  are  adopted. 

It  is  true  that  at  first  the  members  of  local  unions,  led  by  some 
wild  agitator,  would  make  a  demand  upon  their  employer,  and, 
failing  to  enforce  the  demand,  would  quit  work;  but  the  national 
officers  of  the  union  would  reqixire  tlieni  to  return  to  work  at  once 
and  await  the  usual  and  proper  means  of  adjustment. 

The  Arbitration  Board  is  composed  of  an  even  number  of  men 
because  then  an  agreement  when  reached  becomes  unanimous, 
and  a  failure  to  agree  (although  no  such  failure  has  ever  occurred) 
will  not  result  in  the  enforcing  of  the  opinion  of  either  side  by  the 
decision  of  a  third  party.  We  prefer  rather  to  adjourn  from  time 
to  time,  under  the  agreement  to  have  no  strike  or  lock-out,  and  let 
time  and  reason  aid  in  finding  some  common  ground  upon  which  we 
can  agree.  These  agreements  made  from  time  to  time  have  been 
signed  for  the  members  of  the  union  by  their  officers,  and  it  gives 
me  the  highest  pleasure,  as  a  tribute  to  human  nature,  and  in  reply 
to  those  who  deny  the  responsibility  on  the  part  of  workingmen 
to  a  contract,  to  say  that  in  the  history  of  our  organization  no 
agreement  has  ever  been  violated  in  any  manner. 

The  success  of  this  organization  led  to  the  formation  of  a 
larger  and  more  powerful  one,  known  as  the  National  Founders' 
Association,  of  which  I  had  the  honor  to  be  the  first  president.  It 
required  a  long  time  to  convince  many  of  the  larger  employers  of 
men  that  the  formation  of  such  an  association  was  not  dangerous, 
because  in  the  negotiations  it  would  be  a  virtual  recognition  of  the 
union;  but  we  at  last  succeeded  in  organizing  with  about  fifty 
members. 


Co-operation  of  Labor  and  Capital  49 

Within  six  months  the  president  of  the  union  in  which  most  of 
our  men  are  employed  addressed  a  letter  to  our  body  requesting  a 
conference  to  devise  a  plan  for  conducting  negotiations  on  lines 
similar  to  those  of  the  Stove  Defence  Association.  This  confer- 
ence resulted  in  what  has  ever  since  been  known  as  the  New  York 
Agreement,  which  is  as  follows: 

Whereas,  The  past  experience  of  the  members  of  the  National  Founders' 
Association  and  the  Iron  Holders'  Union  of  North  America  justifies  them 
in  the  opinion  that  any  arrangement  entered  into  that  will  conduce  to  greater 
harmony  of  their  relations  as  employers  and  einployees  will  be  to  their  mutual 
advantage;  therefore, 

Resolved,  That  this  Committee  of  Conference  indorse  the  principle  of 
arbitration  in  the  settlement  of  trade  disputes,  and  recommend  the  same 
for  adoption  by  the  members  of  the  National  Founders'  Association  and 
the  Iron  Molders'  Union  of  North  America  on  the  following  lines: 

That,  in  the  event  of  a  dispute  arising  between  members  of  the  respec- 
tive organizations,  a  reasonable  effort  shall  be  made  by  the  parties  directly 
at  interest  to  effect  a  satisfactory  adjustment  of  the  difficulty,  failing  to  do 
which  either  party  shall  have  the  right  to  ask  its  reference  to  a  Committee 
of  Arbitration,  which  shall  consist  of  the  presidents  of  the  National  Founders' 
Association  and  the  Iron  Molders'  Union  of  North  America  or  their  repre- 
sentatives, and  two  other  representatives  from  each  association  appointed 
by  the  respective  presidents. 

The  finding  of  this  Committee  of  Arbitration,  by  a  majority  vote,  shall 
be  considered  final  so  far  as  the  future  action  of  the  respective  organizations 
is  concerned. 

Pending  adjudication  by  this  Committee  of  Arbitration  there  shall  be 
no  cessation  of  work  at  the  instance  of  either  party  to  the  dispute. 

The  Committee  of  Arbitration  shall  meet  within  two  weeks  after  refer- 
ence of  the  dispute  to  them. 

This  agreement  to  go  into  effect  Monday,  March  4,  1901. 

Occurring  at  a  time  when  we  were  passing  from  extreme  depres- 
sion to  a  revival  of  business  activity,  when  there  was  an  enormous 
demand  for  good  workmen,  when  wages  were  moving  upward  and 
when  strikes  were  of  almost  daily  occurrence  in  every  industry, 
this  agreement  was  observed  in  letter  and  in  spirit,  and,  as  a  result, 
both  employer  and  employee  enjoyed  industrial  peace  and  pros- 
perity. 

Because  of  a  failure  to  agree  on  certain  demands  made  by  the 
union,  which  would  have  resulted  in  reduction  of  production,  a 
strike  was  commenced  in  the  city  of  Cleveland  by  the  union  about 
two  years  ago,  which  lasted  over  seven  months  and  cost  upwards  of 


50  Tlic  Amials  of  the  American  Academy 

a  million  dollars,  but  at  the  end  resulted  in  a  conference  lasting 
some  days,  in  which  both  parties  to  the  conference  agreed  to  pre- 
vent a  recurrence  of  warfare  and  united  in  an  agreement  w^ich 
marked  greater  progress  in  the  labor  situation  than  had  ever  been 
reached  before. 

The  resolution  was  as  follows : 

Whereas,  The  N.  F.  A.  and  the  I.  M.  U.  of  N.  A.,  through  their  duly 
accredited  representatives,  at  a  joint  conference  held  in  Detroit,  Mich.,  June, 
1900,  each  formulated  a  declaration  of  principles  to  which  they  still  adhere 
and  which  they  have  been  unable  to  harmonize  after  careful  consideration; 
and 

Whereas,  The  consensus  of  enlightened  opinion  points  to  conciliatory 
methods  and  the  principles  of  arbitration  as  the  most  desirable  and  equit- 
able policy  to  be  pursued  when  disputes  arise  between  any  employer  and  his 
employees  ;  and  as  this  is  a  policy  to  which  both  the  N.  F.  A.  and  the  I.  M. 
U.  of  N  A.  most  heartily  subscribe,  they  entered  into  an  agreement,  the  one 
with  the  other,  since  known  as  the  New  York  Agreement,  by  virtue  of  which 
their  representatives  have  been  enabled  to  meet  and  harmoniously  discuss 
important  matters  affecting  their  mutual  interests,  and  to  endeavor  to  settle 
them  in  accord  with  the  more  enlightened  and  equitable  policy  referred  to ; 
and, 

Whereas,  These  efforts  have  discovered  the  fact  that  wide  differences 
of  opinion,  upon  certain  vital  and  essential  principles,  exist  between  the 
members  of  the  N.  F,  A.  and  the  I.  M.  U.  of  N.  A.,  which  their  representa- 
tives have  hitherto  failed  to  harmonize  by  the  method  provided  in  the  New 
York  Agreement,  thus  seriously  endangering  the  high  purposes  to  which 
they  stand  committed,  and  in  one  instance  leading  to  a  serious  conflict 
between  the  members  of  the  two  associations  in  an  important  section  of  the 
joint  jurisdiction ;  be  it  therefsre 

Resolved,  That  it  is  the  earnest  opinion  of  this  Joint  Conference  Com- 
mittee, composed  of  representatives  of  the  N.  F.  A.  and  the  I.  ]M.  U.  of 
N.  A.,  that  agreement  upon  the  essential  points  of  difference  can  only  be 
secured  by  the  slow  evolutionary  processes  begotten  of  friendly  intercourse 
and  the  more  intelligent  understanding  of  mutual  interests,  which  time  and 
the  influences  of  education  alone  can  bring.     And  be  it  further 

Resolved,  That  we  hereby  reaffirm  our  adherence  to  the  New  York 
Agreement,  whose  beneficent  provisions  we  will  continue  to  invoke,  until  by 
joint  agreement  we  are  enabled  to  reach  a  more  defined  code  of  conciliation 
and  arbitration. 

The  National  Founders"  Association  now  numbers  nearl}^  500 
members,  having  a  combined  capital  of  over  $400,000,000,  and 
employing  nearly  30.000  molders  and  more  than  100,000  working- 
men  in  other  departments,   and  is  daily  adding  to  the  number 


Co-operation  of  Labor  and  Capital  5 1 

because  the  manufacturer  has  seen  that  it  is  the  best — in  fact,  the 
only^— method  of  deaUng  with  organized  labor. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  labor  organization,  recognizing  the 
strength  and  fair  dealing  of  the  employers'  association,  is  from  time 
to  time  so  modifying  its  plans  and  methods  as  to  make  it  possible 
to  work  in  harmony  with  the  employer,  and  together  secure  results 
for  both  that  have  heretofore  been  impossible. 

This  brief  history  enables  me  to  declare  not  only  as  a  convic- 
tion, but  as  an  axioni,  that  there  is  a  common  ground  upon  .which 
the  wage-payer  and  the  wage-earner  can  safely  unite  to  form  a 
community  of  interest  in  the  great  industrial  problem,  and  that 
negotiation  for  the  adjustment  of  their  several  interests  can  be 
conducted  without  strife,  to  the  mutual  advantage  of  both. 

The  history  of  all  associations  of  manufacturers  formed  for  the 
purpose  of  establishing  and  maintaining  just  and  fair  business 
relations  between  their  employees  and  themselves,  proves  beyond 
doubt  that  better  results  can  be  obtained  in  this  way  than  in  any 
other. 

Following  the  conference  resolution  adopted  at  Cleveland, 
the  first  agreement  entered  into  as  a  result  of  the  conference  involves 
so  miany  points  of  imaginary  difference  between  employer  and 
employee,  and  shows  the  possibility  of  arranging  even  the  smallest 
difference  by  conference,  that  it  is  worthy  of  careful  study  by  both 
the  employer  and  employee. 

This  agreement  was  made  in  the  city  of  Philadelphia,  March 
4,  1 90 1,  is  still  in  force,  and  I  believe  has  never  been  violated  by 
either  party  to  the  contract. 


Agreement  betit'ccn  the  A^aiional  Founders'  Association  {on  behalf  of  its  Phila- 
delphia inembers),  and  the  Iron  Alolders'  Union  of  North  America  (on 
behalf  of  its  Philadelphia  members) : 

Article  i.  In  view  of  the  fact  that  there  has  been  an  agreement  entered 
into  at  the  recent  conference  in  Cleveland,  Ohio,  between  representatives 
of  both  associations,  on  the  question  of  equitable  wage  rates  for  molders, 
and  in  view  of  the  mutual  understanding  that  there  is  to  be  a  further  con- 
ference on  the  subject  within  a  reasonable  time — as  ^nay  be  agreed  upon  by 
the  presidents  of  the  respective  associations — for  the  purpose  of  further 
perfecting  the  details  regarding  the  regulation  of  wages  of  molders; 

It  is  agreed  that  the  temporary  agreement,  entered  into  July  16,  1900, 
shall  be  null  and  void,  and  that  the  agreement  herein  contained  shall  super- 
sede the  above-mentioned  temporary  agreement. 


52  The  Annals  of  tJie  American  Academy 

Art.  2.  The  iron  molders,  members  of  the  Philadelphia  Union  of  the 
Iron  Holders*  Union  of  North  America,  agree  to  withdraw  their  demands 
that  the  foundrymen  of  Philadelphia  should  operate  their  foundries  under 
the  rules  and  regulations  of  the  union. 

Art.  3.  In  accordance  with  the  national  agreement,  entered  into  at 
the  recent  conference  in  Cleveland,  on  the  regulation  of  molders'  wages,  the 
foundrymen  of  Philadelphia  who  are  members  of  the  National  Founders' 
Association,  and  the  inolders  of  Philadelphia  who  are  members  of  the  Iron 
]\Iolders'  Union  of  North  America,  agree  to  the  following  wage  scale: 

The  standard  minimum  wage  rate  for  bench  and  floor  molders  who  have 
learned  the  general  trade  of  molding  shall  be  twenty-seven  and  one-half 
(27/^)  cents  per  hour,  or  sixteen  dollars  and  fifty  cents  (Si 6. 50)  per  week  of 
sixty  hours,  it  being  understood  that  when  a  molder  has  completed  his  work 
before  regular  shop-closing  time  such  time  shall  not  be  deducted  in  comput- 
ing the  week  of  sixty  (60)  hours. 

Art.  4.  The  standard  minimum  wage  rate  shall  be  subject  to  the  follow- 
ing differentials: 

1.  The  young  man  who  has  completed  his  apprenticeship,  and  who, 
by  reason  of  his  mechanical  inferiority  or  lack  of  experience,  or  both,  in 
either  branch  of  the  trade  of  molding,  shall  be  imfitted  to  receive  the  full 
Vy-age  rate  provided  for  above,  shall  be  free  to  make  such  arrangements  as 
to  wage  with  his  employer  for  a  period  mutually  satisfactory  as  may  be 
agreeable  to  himself  and  employer. 

2.  The  molder  who,  by  reason  of  his  physical  incapacity  or  physical 
infirmity,  cannot  earn  the  standard  minimum  wage  rate,  is  to  be  free  to 
make  such  arrangements  as  to  wages  as  may  be  mutually  satisfactory  to  the 
employer  and  himself. 

3.  There  being  in  some  foundries  a  grade  of  work  calling  for  less  skill 
than  is  required  by  the  ordinary  molder,  this  grade  of  work  being  limited 
in  quantity,  it  is  agreed  that  nothing  in  this  agreement  shall  be  construed 
as  prohibiting  the  foundrymen  from  employing  a  molder  to  make  such  work 
and  paying  for  same  at  a  rate  that  may  be  inutually  agreed  upon  between  the 
molder  and  the  foundryman.  It  is  understood  that  a  molder  who  is  working 
for  and  receiving  a  rate  of  wages  of  twenty-seven  and  one-half  (27K)  cents 
per  hour  or  over,  is  not  to  be  asked  or  expected  to  make  the  grade  of  work 
referred  to  above  for  any  less  wage  rate  than  he  is  regularly  entitled  to  under 
this  agreement.  This  does  not  give  the  molder  the  right  to  refuse  to  make 
the  work  if  it  is  offered  to  him  at  his  regular  wage  rate. 

Art.  5.  It  is  agreed  that  nothing  in  the  foregoing  shall  be  construed 
as  prohibiting  piece  or  premium  work,  and  when  it  is  desired  on  the  part  of 
the  foundryman  that  his  work  shall  be  done  under  the  piece  work  or  pre- 
mium system,  it  is  agreed  that  the  wages  of  the  molder  shall  be  based  so 
that  he  may  earn  a  wage  not  less  than  if  working  by  the  day.  This  is  under- 
stood as  applying  to  molders  who  are  competent  to  do  an  equal  amount  of 
work  and  of  equal  ^[uality  to  the  a\-eragc  molder  in  the  foundry  in  which  he 
is  employed. 

Where  the  foiindryman  and  molder  cannot  agree  on  the  piece  price  for 
a  certain  piece  of  work,  the  foundryman  is  to  have  the  work  done  by  the  day 


Co-opcratioii  of  Labor  and  Capital  53 

for  a  period  of  a  day  or  more,  according  to  the  nature  of  the  work,  in  order 
to  establish  a  fair  and  equitable  wage  rate  on  the  work  in  question. 

It  is  further  agreed  that  nothing  in  this  agreement  shall  be  construed 
as  preventing  a  molder  from  agreeing  with  his  employer  on  a  piece  price  as 
soon  as  he  is  given  a  pattern. 

Art.  6.  Time  and  half-time  shall  be  paid  for  all  overtime,  excepting  in 
cases  of  accident  or  causes  beyond  control  consuming  not  more  than  thirty 
(30)  minutes;  and  double  time  for  Sundays  and  legal  holidays — to  wit: 
Fourth  of  July,  Labor  Day,  Thanksgiving  Day  and  Christmas.  It  being 
further  understood  that  when  foundries  do  not  inake  a  practice  of  running 
beyond  bell  or  whistle  time  and  are  occasionally  late,  the  "give  and  take" 
system  shall  apply  in  all  such  cases,  it  being  further  understood  that  both 
sides  should  show  a  spirit  of  fairness  in  adjusting  matters  of  this  kind. 

Art.  7.  Arbitrary  limitations  of  output  on  the  part  of  molders,  or 
arbitrary  demands  for  an  excessive  amount  of  outptit  by  the  molders  on 
the  part  of  the  foundryman,  being  contrary  to  the  spirit  of  equity  which, 
should  govern  the  relationship  of  employer  and  employee,  all  attempts  in 
that  direction  by  either  party,  the  molder  or  foundrj'man,  are  to  be  viewed 
with  disfavor  and  will  not  receive  the  support  of  either  of  the  respective 
associations  parties  to  this  agreement. 

It  being  further  agreed  that  the  wage  rates  specified  herein  are  to  be 
paid  for  a  fair  and  honest  day's  work  on  the  part  of  the  molder,  and  that  in 
case  of  a  molder  feeling  that  a  wrong  has  been  done  him  by  his  employer 
and  that  his  treatment  has  been  at  variance  with  the  terms  of  this  agreement, 
he  shall  first  endeavor  to  have  the  same  corrected  by  a  personal  interview 
with  his  employer,  and,  failing  in  this,  then  he  shall  report  same  to  the  proper 
channel  of  his  local  union  for  its  investigation.  If  there  is  any  objectionable 
action  on  the  part  of  the  molder  which  is  in  conflict  with  this  agreenient  or 
the  spirit  thereof,  then  the  employer  is  to  endeavor  to  point  out  to  the  molder 
where  he  is  wrong,  and,  failing  in  this,  he  may  discharge  the  man  for  breach 
of  discipline,  or  else  retain  him  in  his  service  and  submit  the  case  to  the 
National  Founders'  Association  for  investigation. 

In  order  that  there  may  be  no  misunderstanding  as  to  the  wages  a  molder 
is  to  receive  under  the  above  agreement,  it  is  understood  that  a  molder  must 
agree  with  the  employer  on  the  rate  of  wages  that  he  is  to  receive  at  the 
tiine  he  is  engaged ;  it  being  further  agreed  that  neither  the  molder  nor  the 
foundryman  is  to  deviate  from  the  terms  of  this  agreement  as  to  wages  or 
deportinent. 

Art.  8.  In  conformity  with  the  agreement  adopted  at  the  recent  con- 
ference in  the  city  of  Cleveland,  the  National  Founders'  Association  and  the 
Iron  Molders'  Union  of  North  America  deprecate  strikes  and  lock-outs,  and 
desire  to  discourage  such  drastic  measures  among  the  members  of  their 
respective  associations. 

It  is  therefore  agreed  that  all  unfair  or  unjust  shop  practices  on  the 
part  of  molders  or  foundrymen  are  to  be  viewed  with  disfavor  by  the  Iron 
Molders'  Union  of  North  America  and  the  National  Founders'  Association, 
and  any  attempt  on  the  part  of  either  party  to  this  agreement  to  force  any 
unfair  or  unjust  practice  upon  the  other  is  to  be  the  subject  of  rigid  investi- 


54  The  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 

gation  by  the  officers  of  the  respective  associations;  and  if  upon  careful 
investigation  such  charges  are  sustained  against  the  part}^  complained  of, 
then  said  party  is  to  be  subject  to  discipline — according  to  the  by-laws  of 
the  respective  associations. 

And  it  is  further  agreed  that  all  disputes  which  cannot  be  settled  ami- 
cably between  the  employer  and  molder  shall  be  submitted  to  arbitration 
under  the  "  New  York  Agreement." 

Art.  9.  When  the  words  "einployer"  or  "foundryman"  are  used,  it 
is  understood  that  their  foremen  or  representatives  may  carry  out  the  provi- 
sions of  this  agreement  and  act  for  them. 

Art.  10.  It  is  further  agreed  that  nothing  in  the  foregoing  shall  be 
construed  as  applying  to  operators  of  molding  machines  who  have  not  learned 
the  general  trade  of  molding,  and  the  right  of  a  foundryman  to  introduce  or 
operate  molding  machines  in  his  factory  shall  not  be  questioned. 

Art.  II.  This  agreement  shall  continue  in  force  to  July  16,  1901,  and 
thereafter  to  June  3,  1902,  and  to  continue  from  year  to  year,  from  June  3, 
1902,  unless  notice  be  given  on  May  i  of  any  year  by  either  party  to  this 
agreement  signifying  their  desire  to  change  or  modify  the  conditions  of  this 
agreement. 

And  it  is  further  agreed  that  should  any  agreement  be  reached  by  a 
conference  of  representatives  of  the  National  Founders'  Association  and  the 
Iron  Holders'  Union  of  North  America  upon  the  question  of  wage  rates  for 
molders,  and  in  conflict  with  the  terms  of  this  agreement,  that  a  conference 
of  the  parties  hereto  shall  be  called  immediately  to  conform  the  terms  of  this 
agreement  to  those  of  the  national  agreement;  otherwise  this  agreement  is 
to  continue  in  force  as  above  provided. 

In  England,  several  years  ago,  the  great  strike  of  engineers 
involving  75,000  men,  and  extending  over  a  period  of  six  months, 
was  finally  settled  by  conference  between  the  representatives  of  the 
associated  employers  and  representatives  of  the  several  unions, 
and  resulted  in  an  agreement  which  established  harmonious  rela- 
tions between  both  parties,  and  has  ever  since  prevented  stiikes  or 
lock-outs. 

In  Belgium,  in  1899,  a  lock-out,  probably  the  greatest  which 
has  ever  occurred,  involving  almost  every  industry,  shutting  out 
more  than  50,000  men,  and  extending  over  a  period  of  seven  months, 
was  only  settled  after  the  employers  discovered  to  their  own  great 
advantage  that  matters  can  be  arranged  more  satisfactorily  when 
the  representatives  of  organized  capital  confer  with  the  representa- 
tives of  organized  labor.  The  result  of  their  conference  was  the 
removal  of  all  obnoxious  demands  and  the  adjustment  of  wages 
and  conditions  of  labor  upon  an  equitable  basis,  embodied  in  an 
agreement  now  in  force  and  held  equally  binding  on  employer  and 


Co-operatio?i  of  Labor  and  Capital  55 

€mployee,  the  result  of  which  was,  in  England  as  in  the  examples 
cited  in  this  country,  the  elimination  of  strikes  and  lockouts. 

A  review  in  detail  of  the  results  accomplished  by  the  metliods 
of  conference  and  conciliation,  in  these  cases  referred  to,  would 
require  more  space  than  can  be  used  in  this  paper — but  warrant 
the  following  conclusions : 

First.  —  That  labor  organizations  are  the  natural  result  of  a 
great  movement  in  the  business  world  which  is  replacing  costly 
competition  with  profitable  co-operation,  and  are  formed  primarily 
for  the  protection  of  their  members,  upon  the  theory  that  collective 
bargaining  for  the  sale  of  their  labor  is  more  profitable  than  individ- 
ual contract. 

Second. — The  accomplishment  of  their  object  requires  labor 
organizations  to  secure  the  membership  of  the  largest  number  of 
persons  employed  in  any  kindred  trade,  and  (because  voluntary 
advancement  of  wages  rarely  or  never  occurs)  to  demand  a  change 
in  wages  and  betterment  in  conditions  whenever  it  appears  that  the 
need  for  their  labor  is  in  excess  of  the  supply,  and  therefore  war- 
rants such  demand.  Labor  organizations  are  necessary  also  to 
resist  collectively  any  movement  on  the  part  of  the  employer  which 
would  result  in  injury  to  the  workingman. 

Third. —  Whenever  labor  organizations  by  reason  of  false 
leaders  have  made  unfair  demands  or  established  conditions 
which  were  unfair  to  the  employer,  it  has  been  because  of  the  use 
of  collective  force  against  the  individual  employer,  and  this  has 
been  defeated  whenever  the  employers  have  organized  similar 
associations  for  their  own  defence. 

Fourth.  —  That  strikes  for  advance  in  wages  and  improvement 
of  condition — occurring,  as  they  do,  during  a  period  of  prosperity 
— usually  succeed,  while  strikes  for  recognition  of  the  union,  usur- 
pation of  the  rights  of  the  employer  or  against  the  reduction  of 
wages  almost  invariably  fail  in  their  purpose. 

Assuming  that  the  employer  is  governed  by  honesty  of  purpose 
in  dealing  with  labor,  and  that  the  employee  is  equally  honest  in 
his  desire  to  give  worth  for  wages,  the  oiganization  of  both  parties 
must  slowly  but  surely  remove  force  as  the  means  of  securing 
results,  and  cause  a  resort  to  reason  and  conciliation  as  the  best 
means  to  accomplish  the  greatest  value  for  both. 

There  are  two  great  obstacles  which  prevent  the  substitution 
of  these  means  of  settling  the  labor  question  at  present,  and  which 
must  be  first  removed  before  better  conditions  can  be  realized. 


56  The  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 

On  the  part  of  the  employer  there  is  the  refusal  (usually 
sentimental)  to  recognize  the  union,  and  the  determination  to 
destroy  it.  He  forgets  that  his  effort  to  destroy  the  union  pre- 
supposes his  recognition  of  it,  else  he  would  be  fighting  a  nightmare, 
while  the  recognition  in  fact  would  enable  him  to  learn  its  scope, 
purposes,  and  plans,  and  by  co-operation  secure  a  valuable  ally 
instead  of  an  unreasonable  enemy. 

In  the  use  of  the  word  union,  I  desire  always  to  be  understood 
to  refer  to  such  organizations  of  workingmen  as  are  conducted 
along  reasonable  lines  and  are  led  by  representatives  worthy  of  the 
best  element  composing  the  membership,  who  formulate  their 
demands  in  harmony  with  known  business  conditions  and  control 
their  movements  within  the  lines  of  law  and  order,  because  when 
they  assume  any  other  condition  they  are  simply  mobs,  and  deserve 
only  the  condemnation  of  every  worthy  citizen. 

The  obstacle  on  the  part  of  labor  is  the  effort  to  establish  the 
idea  that  recognition  of  the  union  implies  more  than  the  agreement 
to  make  collective  bargains  between  employer  and  employee 
at  such  times  as  a  change  in  business  conditions  demands  or 
permits,  or  to  insist  that  it  conveys  the  right  to  enforce  rules  and 
methods  in  the  conduct  of  the  business  without  the  consent  or  co- 
operation of  the  employer. 

To  remove  these  obstacles  and  establish  a  condition  of  har- 
mony and  mutual  prosperity,  the  employer  must  not  forget  that 
wage-earners  have  formed  powerful  associations  for  the  purpose  of 
advancing  and  protecting  their  interests,  and  have  delegated  their 
individual  power  to,  and  placed  their  confidence  in,  the  officers  of 
their  unions. 

That  these  officers  are  in  many  cases  far  above  the  average 
of  their  craftsmen,  and  their  highest  ambition  is  to  better  the  con- 
dition of  their  fellow-workmen. 

That  the  aggressive  methods  of  labor  unions  are  very  frequently 
caused  by  the  determination  of  the  employer  to  destroy  them, 
without  giving  them  a  chance  to  be  heard  in  their  own  defence. 

That  in  the  conduct  of  business  involving  large  investment  for 
plant,  and  the  employment  of  a  large  number  of  men,  able  manage- 
ment is  required  to  secure  the  best  results  from  machinery  and 
power,  but  good  government  is  necessary  to  secure  the  highest 
efficiency  of  men,  and  the  best  government  is  that  which  is  founded 
on  the  consent  of  the  governed. 


Co-operation  of  Labor  and  Capital  57 

That  responsibility  for  the  performance  of  such  an  agreement 
as  should  exist  between  employer  and  employee  cannot  be  measured 
by  legal  or  financial  standard,  but  can  be  safely  based  on  individual 
integrity,  and  in  this  I  have  found  that  a  very  large  majority  of 
the  workingmen  in  this  country  hold  an  agreement  which  is  made 
for  them  by  the  officers  of  their  union  as  binding  them  in  every 
sense  of  the  word. 

That  the  organization  of  associations  of  employers  in  kindred 
branches  of  industry  tends  to  uniformity  in  method  of  regulating 
the  employment  of  men,  and  at  the  same  time  affords  protection 
against  the  demands  which  may  be  unfair  or  the  strife  which  may 
be  instigated  by  unwise  leaders  of  organized  labor. 

The  employee  must  not  forget : 

That  the  right  to  be  a  union  man  implies  also  the  right  to  be 
a  non-union  man. 

That  no  honest  employer  can  discriminate  between  the  men  in 
his  employ,  or  recognize  the  right  of  any  body  of  men  to  determine 
whom  he  shall  employ. 

That  the  effort  to  establish  a  minimum  rate  of  wage,  if  based 
upon  the  lowest  standard  of  efficiency,  destroys  the  earning  power 
of  the  more  competent  workman  and  lowers  the  standard  of  all. 

That  the  effort  to  limit  production  is  false  in  principle,  and  can 
only  succeed,  if  at  all,  when  the  demand  is  in  excess  of  the  supply, 
and  when  it  succeeds,  it  causes  the  creation  of  methods  and 
machines  which  supplant  the  skill  of  the  mechanic  and  bring  into 
competition  a  lower  grade  of  labor  at  a  lower  wage. 

That  the  effort  to  create  a  monopoly  by  attempting  to  retard 
the  privilege  of  the  American  boy  to  acquire  a  trade  is  destructive 
to  the  best  interests  of  a  progressive  nation. 

That  the  laws,  rules  and  methods  of  labor  unions  must  be 
changed  to  conform  with  present  conditions,  if  the  union  hopes  to 
be  recognized  as  a  factor  in  the  adjustment  of  the  labor  problem. 

That  the  right  to  strike,  or  refuse  to  work,  under  certain  con- 
ditions, does  not  involve  the  right  to  prevent  others  from  working, 
if  the  conditions  are  satisfactory  to  them,  and  involves  responsi- 
bility for  all  the  damage  that  may  arise. 

That  the  standard  of  wage  cannot  be  measured  by  the  stand- 
ard, of  time   employed,   or  energy  expended,  but   by  the  results 

attained. 

These,  and  many  other  differences  which  might  be  enumerated. 


58  The  AiDials  of  the  American  Academy 

are  the  causes  which  make  for  strife  and  dissent,  and  prevent  the 
harmony  which  should  exist  for  the  mutual  benefit  of  both  classes. 
These  differences  can  only  be  removed  or  harmonized  by  honest 
and  intelligent  conferences  between  the  employer  and  employee, 
and  to  bring  about  such  conferences  is  the  purpose  and  aim  of  the 
National  Civic  Federation.  The  success  of  the  effort  promises,  for 
the  employer,  the  markets  of  the  world ;  for  the  employee,  continued 
and  increasing  profits;  for  the  country,  industrial  peace  and  better 
citizens. 


Harmonizing  Labor  and  Capital  by  Means  of 
Industrial  Partnership 


By  Alexander  Purves,  Treasurer,  Hampton  Institute,  Virginia 


(59) 


HARMONIZING    LABOR    AND    CAPITAL    BY    MEANS    OF 
INDUSTRIAL   PARTNERSHIP 


By  Alexander  Purves 
Treasurer,  Hampton  Institute,  Virginia 


In  this  age  of  business  supremacy,  when  trade  has  become  the 
leading  science  and  merchandising  an  art;  when  sentiment  is  being 
pushed  aside  by  the  forward  rush  of  commerciahsm,  and  expedi- 
ency seems  to  be  successfully  competing  with  morality;  when  one 
is  almost  persuaded  that  the  Church  itself,  to  survive,  must  be  con- 
ducted with  business  sagacity,  one  is  compelled  to  acknowledge 
the  futility  of  urging  any  plan  for  the  reformation  of  the  existing 
relations  between  capital  and  labor  with  serious  hopes  for  its  present 
consideration  and  possible  adoption,  except  the  same  shall  be  able 
to  prove  its  principles  to  be  in  accord  with  good  business  policy. 

There  are  those  who  believe  the  danger  to  vested  interests  is 
increasing  proportionately  with  the  ever  growing  average  of  intelli- 
gence on  the  part  of  the  wage-earners  and  that  the  former  will 
eventually  be  overwhelmed  by  the  latter  to  the  demoralization  of 
both  unless  capital  anticipates  and  averts  the  danger  by  securing 
and  maintaining  a  hearty  co-operation  of  the  working  classes 
through  a  substantial  acknowledgment  of  the  just  claims  of  enlight- 
■ened  labor  to  an  enlarged  share  in  the  product  of  the  two. 

It  seems  reasonable  to  assume  that  with  the  advance  of  civili- 
zation and  general  intelligence,  some  means  must  be  found  for  the 
treatment  of  the  whole  matter  of  the  return  for  services  rendered, 
that  shall  be  more  progressive  and  more  humane  in  character 
than  the  present  basis  of  supply  and  demand.  As  Prof.  Oilman 
says — "We  must  acknowledge  that  the  wages  system,  viewed  in 
its  simplest  form  of  time  wages,  does  not  supply  the  necessary 
motives  for  the  workman  to  do  his  best."  To  which  we  may  add, 
that  neither  does  it  appeal  to  his  sense  of  right  nor  to  his  theory 
of  justice. 

The  first  advance  towards  a  change  must  be  made  by  the 
masters,  and  any  movement  for  a  revision  of  the  existing  system 
must  take  form  in  an  apparent  concession  on  the  part  of  vested 

(61) 


62  The  Annals  of  the  American  Acadetny 

interests.  The  apparent  indifference  and  complacency  with  which 
the  dominant  class  regards  the  whole  matter  is  most  regrettable. 
The  leaders  in  reform  should  adopt  some  plan  whose  successful 
operation  would  commend  itself — from  a  business  point  of  view — 
to  the  many  masters.  That  is  to  say,  whatever  is  done  in  that 
direction,  let  it  be  done  primarily  because  it  is  just  and  right. 
Then  if  it  can  be  shown  to  be  profitable  to  capital,  so  much  the 
better.  Such  a  demonstration  would  be  invaluable,  not  so  much 
by  reason  of  the  resulting  increase  in  the  incomes  of  the  leaders 
in  the  movement,  as  that  such  a  fact  would  make  probable  the 
extension  of  the  system  into  other  enterprises  where  such  an 
incentive  would  have  the  stronger  influence. 

The  successes,  moderate  though  they  have  been,  which  have 
generally  attended  the  introduction  and  operation  of  profit-sharing 
plans  in  various  forms,  should  encourage  further  developments 
and  extensions  of  that  system  in  the  broadest  manner  possible, 
without,  however,  introducing  or  permitting  any  features  that  would 
embarrass  the  administration  or  weaken  the  personnel.  As  the 
successful  manufacturers  of  the  present  generation  are  largely 
those  who  have  found  ways  to  utilize  the  by-products  and  the 
power  which  had  theretofore  gone  to  waste,  so  the  successful 
masters  of  the  future  must  be  those  who  shall  find  some  means  of 
harmonizing  the  demands  of  capital  and  labor,  thus  saving  and 
utilizing  that  large  percentage  of  human  energy  which  is  now 
worse  than  wasted  in  the  continual  contention,  passive  or  active, 
between  the  working  classes  and  vested  interests.  Apart  from 
every  other  element  of  advantage,  can  there  be  any  question  as 
to  the  increased  physical  capacity  and  staying  powers  of  a  man 
when  led  on  in  hopeful  expectancy  rather  than  when  driven  on  by 
physical  necessity? 

It  is  justly  claimed  that  in  many  instances  the  wage-earners 
would  not  be  benefited  by  a  distribution  in  cash  of  a  percentage 
of  the  profits,  that  they  would  fritter  it  away  either  foolishly  or 
with  lack  of  discretion.  There  is  nothing  to  which  the  average 
family  can  adjust  itself  so  easily  and  with  such  alacrity  as  to  an 
increase  in  income.  Could  we  but  save  the  wastes  of  carelessness, 
the  losses  from  strikes  and  lock-outs,  and  to  these  add  the  enlarged 
profits  resulting  from  a  broader  co-operation  and  greater  physical 
ability  to  produce,  then  capitalize  and  conserve  all  of  these  for  the 
benefit  of  those  who  in  each  case  have  contributed  their  proportion 


Havjuonizing  Labor  a?id  Capital  63 

— either  in  capital,  brains  or  labor — to  the  enlarged  success  of  the 
enterprise,  we  would  have  placed  within  reach  better  homes,  better 
clothing,  better  food,  better  schools,  and  have  taken  a  step  forward 
which  should  inspire  individuals  of  both  classes  with  higher  ambi- 
tions for  a  larger  and  better  life. 

"Prosperity  sharing,"  strictly  speaking,  does  not  go  far 
enough,  because  it  limits  the  amount  awarded  to  labor  to  a  small 
percentage  of  the  real  profits.  The  share  must  be  small  because 
"adversity  sharing"  does  not  accompany  profit-sharing.  In  all 
fairness  the  share  of  labor  in  the  margins  of  the  business  should  be 
of  such  proportions  that  justice  to  all  would  make  it  alike  a  sharer 
in  losses  as  well  as  in  gains.  By  this  we  do  not  mean  to  say,  when 
losses  occur,  that  labor  should  contribute  actual  money  to  make 
good  any  portion  of  the  impairment.  Such  a  proposition  would 
be  impracticable  and  impossible.  The  share  of  labor  in  the  sur- 
plus profits — that  is,  after  the  payment  of  standard  wages  and  a 
just  return  to  capital  for  its  simple  use — should  be  upon  a  most 
liberal  basis,  and  any  and  all  impairments  suffered  in  years  of 
adversity  should  be  made  good  out  of  subsequent  surplus  earnings 
(in  which,  except  for  such  impairm.ent,  labor  would  have  been  a 
sharer)  before  wages  shall  again  be  entitled  to  any  further  dividends. 

Amongst  the  various  schemes  that  have 'been  put  into  opera- 
tion in  those  concerns  which  have  endeavored  to  make  their 
employees  sharers  in  the  profits  of  the  business,  the  most  familiar 
plan  is  that  of  offering  to  wages  a  dividend  on  the  total  amount 
thereof,  at  the  same  rate  of  percentage  as  is  paid  on  the  par  value 
of  the  capital  stock.  This  proposition  is  unfair,  since  in  most 
industries  the  capital  stock  amounts  to  several  times  the  total  of 
the  annual  pay-roll.  After  the  first  adjustment  upon  that  basis, 
the  incentive  to  labor  to  strive  for  larger  results  is  almost  insig- 
nificant, since  the  share  of  wages,  in  the  subsequent  increased 
earnings  would,  where  the  capital  is  equal  to  say  four  times  the 
annual  pay-roll,  amount  to  only  one-fifth  of  the  increase  in  net 
earnings,  the  other  four-fifths  thereof  going  to  capital. 

Other  institutions  have  established  a  custom  of  presenting  to 
their  employees  annually  a  sum  of  money  equal  to  a  certain  per- 
centage of  their  salaries.  But  this  extra  income  soon  becomes  as 
much  a  matter  of  wages  as  the  weekly  or  monthly  pay-roll,  and  little 
real  good  is  accomplished — the  employee  is  still  working  for  fixed 
wages.     There  is  something  in  the  make-up  of  a  man  that  cannot 


64  TJie  Annals  of  ili:  American  Academy 

be  wholly  satisfied,  no  matter  how  secure  it  may  be,  with  a  definite 
agreement  that  he  shall  receive  a  certain  fixed  sum  of  money  for  a 
given  amount  of  work,  however  liberal  the  compensation  may  be. 
There  is  a  positive  satisfaction  in  having  a  pecuniary  interest  in 
an  enterprise  where  the  financial  return  is  not  definitely  restricted 
and  known  in  advance,  even  though  there  may  be  as  an  accom- 
paniment some  danger  of  a  loss. 

Any  attempt  to  satisfy  the  craving  of  labor  for  justice  will  fail 
if  handicapped  by  paternalism.  A  man  must  be  acknowledged  a 
man.  His  sense  of  independence  and  self-respect  must  be  strength- 
ened and  not  crushed. 

Furthermore,  a  man  is  not  satisfied  to  have  even  a  part  of  his 
just  earnings  expended  for  him.  Company  kindergartens,  company 
libraries,  company  churches  are  doubtless  very  estimable  in  their 
way  and  are  doing  much  good.  They  are  a  step  in  the  right  direc- 
tion and  most  valuable  in  the  practical  demonstration  which  they 
offer  that  it  pays  capital  to  improve  the  conditions  and  surround- 
ings in  which  the  operatives  live.  But  those  who  are  to  enjoy 
these  institutions  should  not  be  allowed  to  feel  that  they  are  under 
any  obligations  to  the  owners  thereof.  Rather  they  should  be 
given  to  understand  that  a  certain  definite  percentage  of  the  net 
earnings  of  the  enterprise  would  be  expended  for  the  public  good — 
not  as  a  benefaction,  but  as  a  just  due — giving  to  the  operatives,  as 
far  as  possible,  the  administration  and  management  of  such  com- 
pany institutions. 

Some  manufacturers  believe  that  if  their  employees  can  be 
induced  to  purchase  homes  adjacent  to  the  mills  the  labor  problem 
has  been  solved.  From  the  manufacturer's  point  of  view  the  plan 
is  attractive.  An  employee  who  puts  the  hard-earned  savings  of 
years  into  a  small  dwelling — generally  situated  in  a  community 
wholly  dependent  upon  the  local  mill  of  his  employer — doubt- 
less ties  himself  up  very  effectually  to  the  enterprise,  but  whether 
he  is  attached  by  his  loyalty  to  and  affection  for  the  concern,  or 
is  held  by  the  self-welded  fetters  of  a  money  investment  is  an 
open  question. 

The  actual  value  of  an  investment  in  any  business  is  based 
primarily  upon  the  security — the  consideration  of  the  rate  of 
interest  being  secondary  to  the  safety  of  the  investment.  This 
is  recognized  by  the  great  exchanges  where  all  manner  of  stocks 
and   bonds   are   bought    and   sold.      These   compel   the   frequent 


Harvi07iizing  Labor  and  Capital  65 

publication  of  the  earnings  and  general  business  of  those  corpora- 
tions that  desire  to  have  listed  any  of  their  issues  of  securities.  No 
one  can  say  with  truth  that  public  knowledge  of  the  affairs  of  any 
such  corporation  has  imperiled  the  proper  operation  and  legitimate 
success  of  the  enterprise.  On  the  contrary,  experience  has  proven 
the  wisdom  of  such  a  course  from  every  standpoint — the  public  is 
better  protected  in  its  investments  of  capital  and  such  corporations 
are  given  a  standing  in  the  financial  world  not  accorded  to  those 
who  keep  their  affairs  secret  and  guarded  from  the  public  view. 
We  are  compelled  to  infer  that  the  negative  action  on  the  part  of 
these  latter  concerns  is  prompted  by  one  of  two  reasons:  either 
they  are  striving  to  secure  a  higher  credit  rating  than  that  to  which 
their  actual  condition  would  entitle  them,  or,  more  probably,  that 
they  fear  their  percentage  of  net  profits  is  larger  than  public  senti- 
ment would  regard  with  favor.  It  would  seem  in  either  case  that 
the  interested  public  is  morally  entitled  to  frequent  and  intelligible 
information  regarding  all  corporations  which  owe  their  very  exist- 
ence to  the  public  consent. 

What  is  true  of  corporations  is  true  of  individual  partner- 
ships as  well.  To  let  the  interested  public  have  knowledge  of  the 
true  state  of  affairs  would  doubtless  be  very  distasteful  to  all  classes 
of  masters.  And  yet  it  is  not  difficult  to  imagine  that  conditions 
still  less  agreeable  may  confront  the  masters  if  the  demands  for 
justice  to  wage-earners  are  ignored.  Would  not  the  publication  of 
figures  covering  the  assets,  liabilities  and  earnings  (or  losses)  place 
all  business  upon  a  firmer  foundation  and  exert  a  helpful  influence 
on  the  adjustment  of  profits  between  capital,  brains,  skill  and  labor? 
Is  the  withholding  of  truth  an  established  virtue  and  the  publica- 
tion of  truth  a  dangerous  experiment  ?  And  finally  if  the  introduc- 
tion of  profit-sharing  into  a  business  necessitates  the  publication  of 
the  earnings  of  the  business,  would  it  not  be  fair  to  ask  the  few 
masters  to  make  that  concession  to  the  interests  of  the  many 
workers  ? 

Business  organizations  are  composed  of  two  classes — those 
who  own  and  control  and  those  who  operate  and  produce ;  or  rather 
those  who  contribute  their  money  and  those  who  contribute  their 
lives.  We  are  not  aware  of  any  moral  law  that  denies  that  the  man 
who  makes  his  contribution  of  flesh  and  blood  in  work — ^be  it  in 
stoking  a  fire,  running  an  engine,  operating  a  type-writer,  selling 
goods  or  driving  a  truck — is  justly  entitled  to  as  full  a  knowledge 


C6  The  Annals  of  the  Ajnericafi  Academy 

of  the  pecuniary  result  of  his  labor  as  the  man  who  merely  loans 
capital  to  the  operation. 

The  following  principles  may  be  set  down  as  sufficiently  well 
established  to  be  used  as  a  basis  for  working  out  plans  for  the  reform 
of  prevailing  relations  of  labor  and  capital : 

(a)  That  whenever  there  is  sufficient  confidence  on  the  part  of 
the  employees  a  direct  or  an  indirect  dividend  to  labor  is  a  good 
investment  for  capital. 

(b)  That  with  an  actual  dividend-earning  interest  in  the  busi- 
ness every  participant  would  be  prompted  to  individual  efforts: 
ist.  Towards  accomplishing  more  work  in  a  given  length  of  time. 
2d.  In  the  saving  of  waste.  3d.  In  seeking  and  suggesting 
improvements  in  the  manufacture  and  in  the  conduct  of  the  busi- 
ness looking  to  the  advancement  of  the  general  welfare.  4th.  In 
that  it  would  naturally  become  the  self-imposed  duty  of  every 
employee  to  challenge  a  co-worker  for  laziness  or  upon  the  commis- 
sion or  omission  of  any  act  through  which  a  loss  to  the  business 
would  be  the  likely  result;  and,  therefore, 

(c)  That  capital  in  business  is  best  secured  when  every  em- 
ployee is  pecuniarily  benefited  through  the  enlarged  success  of  the 
enterprise. 

It  is  a  false  theory  that  capital  shall  not  accumulate,  or  that 
the  return  upon  it  shall  be  restricted  within  definite  limits.  There 
must  be  allowed  to  capital  the  opportunity  for  enlarging  returns 
in  the  development  of  new  enterprises — a  chance  to  earn  more  by 
risking  more.  Otherwise  there  will  be  no  incentive  for  its  broader 
operations  and  its  usefulness  will  be  restricted.  That  capital  is 
accumulated  in  the  hands  of  the  comparatively  few  is  not,  gen- 
erally speaking,  an  accident,  but  rather  that  fact  is  a  strong  indica- 
tion that  those  who  control  it  are  the  men  best  qualified  to  hold  it 
intact  and  make  it  most  productive. 

Besides  the  elements  of  capital  and  labor,  the  matter  of  brains 
or  business  sagacity  must  be  recognized  as  an  indispensable  factor 
in  business  and  must  be  reckoned  with.  The  peculiar  ability  that 
a  certain  small  percentage  of  men  possess  to  conduct  modern 
business  ventures  at  a  profit  is  of  great  value,  is  always  in  urgent 
demand  and  must  be  well  paid  for.  Like  everything  else  it  will 
nattirally  seek  for  itself  the  best  market  and  will  generally  go  to  the 
highest  bidder.      There  can  be  little  doubt  that  the  neglect  to 


Harvionizing  Labor  and  Capital  6/ 

recognize  and  properly  care  for  this  element  as  essential  to  success 
has  been  largely  the  direct  cause  of  the  many  failures  of  purely 
co-operative  ventures.  Brains  must  be  paid  for.  Sagacity  must 
have  its  reward. 

Amongst  the  many  obstacles  which  confront  any  effort  to 
arrive  at  some  fair  basis  for  the  introduction  of  profit-sharing 
institutions,  probably  the  most  prominent  is  the  difficulty  of  estab- 
lishing a  satisfactory  system  for  calculating  and  treating  the  profits 
and  losses  of  the  business  so  as  to  avoid  the  element  of  suspicion  on 
the  part  of  the  employees  as  to  the  fairness  of  the  bookkeeping 
employed  in  arriving  at  the  basis  for  the  division  to  them  provided 
for  in  the  agreement.  Many  honest  efforts  of  employers  to  intro- 
duce plans  for  a  distribution  amongst  the  employees  of  a  percentage 
of  the  net  profits  of  the  business  have  been  defeated  solely  by 
reason  of  the  inability  of  the  management  to  overcome  the  dis- 
trust on  the  part  of  the  wage-earners  in  the  bookkeeping,  it  being 
a  simple  enough  matter  so  to  treat  the  accounts  of  profits,  losses, 
depreciation  of  plant  and  receivables,  that  the  percentage  actually 
due  the  employees  under  the  agreement  may  be  cut  down  or 
entirely  obliterated  at  will.  The  plan  of  having  a  direct  represent- 
ative of  the  employees  (of  the  watch-dog  order)  in  the  management 
is  neither  desirable  nor  logical.  There  may  be  individual  and 
isolated  cases  of  perfect  faith  and  trust  on  the  part  of  labor  towards 
capital,  but  as  a  business  proposition  in  the  present  stage  of  our 
moral  development  there  must  be  something  more  tangible  than 
the  mere  verbal  assurances  of  the  owners,  endorsed  by  an  account- 
ing under  their  direction. 

It  is  with  the  aim  of  presenting  a  plan  for  meeting  in  a  measure 
this  difficulty,  and  at  the  same  time  outlining  a  scheme  which  should 
operate  to  the  mutual  advantage  of  both  capital  and  labor  without 
compromising  the  security  of  vested  interests,  but  rather  strength- 
ening it,  that  the  suggestions  herein  contained  are  submitted — the 
basic  principle  being  that  the  encouragement  of  righteous  ambition 
with  a  well-grounded  hope  for  future  prosperity  must  surely  develop 
the  best  there  is  in  the  wage-earner  with  benefit  both  to  himself  and 
to  capital  as  the  inevitable  result. 

In  considering  the  proportion  of  the  net  profits  which  should 
be  paid  out  in  cash  dividends  to  capital  for  its  use,  it  may  (at  least 
for  the  sake  of  presenting  this  argument)  be  counted  fair  to  assume 
that  in  the  average  legitimate  enterprise   the  withdrawal  of  say 


68  The  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 

<io  per  centum  of  the  actual  net  earnings  would  be  the  limit  of 
safe  business  policy  and  that  the  remainder  of  such  earnings  should 
be  kept  in  the  business  for  the  purpose  of  extending  the  enterprise 
and  the  more  securely  protecting  the  investment. 

As  an  outline  for  a  plan  for  the  proposed  adjustment  in  a  concern 
already  established,  the  proposition  is  that  a  binding  agreement  shall 
be  entered  into,  which  shall  provide  for  the  payment  of  the  regu- 
lar standard  of  cash  wages  to  all  employees  of  the  concern,  includ- 
ing the  officials  and  management — and  shall  likewise  name  a  definite 
amount  which  shall  be  determined  to  be  a  just  and  fair  annual  re- 
turn to  capital  for  its  simple  use;  not,  however,  exceeding  say  60 
per  cent  of  the  average  established  net  earnings;  that  the  agreed 
amount  shall  be  paid  annually  (in  quarterly  or  half-yearly  instal- 
ments) as  a  dividend  upon  the  common  stock  of  the  corporation 
cumulatively;  that  it  shall  be  especially  understood  that  the  com- 
pany by  a  two-thirds  vote  of  its  common  stockholders  may  issue 
for  needed  additional  capital  preferred  stock;  that  the  prior  right 
to  subscribe  to  such  preferred  stock  shall  be  pro-rated  one-half  of 
the  issue  to  the  holders  of  common  stock,  and  the  other  one-half  to 
the  holders  of  the  debenture  books  (hereinafter  particularly  set 
forth)  in  proportion  to  the  par  value  of  the  respective  holdings ;  that 
wages  shall  be  a  first  claim  upon  the  assets,  and  that  the  dividends 
to  capital  stock  shall  have  the  first  claim  upon  the  net  earnings,  and 
that  they  shall  be  cumulative  at  a  rate  fixed  by  agreement ;  that 
after  the  payment  of  such  dividends  as  a  first  charge  upon  the  net ' 
profits  of  the  business,  20  per  cent  of  the  net  profits  then  remaining 
shall  be  set  aside  in  a  contingent  fund  (to  be  hereafter  specifically 
referred  to)  and  that  the  balance  of  the  annual  net  profits  still 
remaining  shall  be  held  in  the  business — but,  one-half  thereof  for 
the  benefit  of  the  stockholders  and  the  other  one-half  for  the  em- 
ployees (under  certain  restrictions  and  agreements  to  be  explained 
presently). 

It  will  be  readily  seen  that  the  above  treatment  of  the  annual 
net  profits  would  continue  the  accumulation  in  the  business  of  the 
surplus  earnings  in  excess  of  the  regular  cash  dividends,  and  so 
increase,  as  now,  the  security  of  the  original  investment  and  (as 
hereinafter  shown)  in  no  way  diminish  or  endanger  the  present 
power  of  the  stockholders  to  control  the  management  of  the  concern. 

To  accomplish  this,  it  is  proposed  that  after  the  regular  cash 
dividends  have  been  paid  to  capital  and  the  said  percentage  set 


Harmonising  Labor  and  Capital  69 

aside  for  the  contingent  fund,  annual  stock  dividends  shall  be 
declared  covering  the  amount  of  the  surplus  earnings  which  are  to 
be  held  in  the  business;  that  the  certificates  issued  therefor  shall 
be  in  the  nature  of  dcjcrrei  stock  dcbcnhircs  which  shall  have  no 
voting  power  and  shall  be  subordinate  in  every  respect  to  the 
common  (and  preferred)  stock  of  the  concern,  both  as  to  dividends 
and  principal,  so  that  said  deferred  stock  debentures  shall  not  be 
entitled  to  any  dividend  or  interest  whatsoever  except  when  earned 
during  the  then  current  year,  and  not  until  after  the  dividends 
upon  any  preferred  stock  shall  have  been  paid  or  set  aside,  nor 
until  the  said  agreed  sum  (equal  to  60  per  centum  of  the  estab- 
lished average  net  earnings)  shall  have  been  paid  out,  or  set  aside 
for  the  dividends  upon  the  common  stock  and  said  contribution 
made  to  the  contingent  fund;  that  the  said  deferred  stock  deben- 
tures shall  receive  dividends  at  a  rate  not  exceeding  6  per  cent  per 
annum  when  earned  in  the  then  current  year,  and  in  no  sense  shall 
said  dividends  be  cumulative;  that  in  the  event  of  liquidation  or 
dissolution,  the  common  (and  preferred)  stock  shall  be  paid  in  full 
before  any  payment  shall  be  made  upon  the  said  deferred  stock 
debentures,  but  said  deferred  stock  debentures  shall  then  receive 
all  of  the  assets  remaining  after  the  payment  in  full  of  the  preferred 
and  common  stock  and  of  all  outstanding  indebtedness;  and  that 
the  said  deferred  stock  debentures  shall  always  be  subordinate 
to  the  general  creditors  of  the  company.* 

These  deferred  stock  debentures  shall  all  be  issued  to  a  trustee 
— one-half  thereof  to  be  held  in  trust  for  the  benefit  of  the  common 
stockholders,  and  the  other  one-half  shall  be  considered  as  extra 
wages  and  shall  be  held  by  said  trustee  for  the  benefit  of  the  em- 
ployees. Cash  dividends  on  all  deferred  stock  debentures,  when 
declared,  shall  be  paid  to  said  trustee,  who  shall  disburse  the  same — 
one-half  thereof  to  the  holders  of  the  common  stock  pro  rata,  and 
the  other  one-half  to  the  employees  in  proportion  to  the  respective 
amounts  standing  to  their  credit  on  their  debenture  books  (here- 
inafter described). 

That  is  to  say,  for  illustration,  that  if  the  capital  of  the  concern 
is  $1,000,000  and  the  net  earnings  for  the  past  several  years  have 

^  We  have  assurances  from  eminent  corporation  attorneys  that  the  proposed  issue  of 
deferred  stock  with  the  suggested  limitations  thereon  is  entirely  legal  and  feasible,  and  that  it 
can  be  done  without  danger  of  having  the  concern  forced  into  a  court  of  equity  by  the  holders 
of  such  certificates. 


"JO  The  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 

averaged  $200,000  per  annum, — 60  per  cent  of  such  earnings,  or 
$120,000,  would  be  the  amount  agreed  upon  as  the  annual  cash 
dividend  to  capital  represented  by  the  common  stock, — that  20 
per  cent  of  the  balance  of  such  earnings,  or  say  $16,000,  would  be 
the  amount  to  be  paid  into  the  contingent  fund,  and  that  at  the  end 
of  the  first  year  of  the  operation  of  the  plan  the  balance,  or  sum  of 
say  $64,000,  would  be  held  in  the  business,  but  that  deferred 
stock  debentures  to  cover  said  amount  would  be  issued  to  the 
trustee — $32,000  to  be  held  for  the  use  of  the  stockholders,  and 
$32,000  as  extra  wages  to  be  held  for  the  employees.  At  the  end 
of  the  second  year  after  the  payment  of  the  dividends  to  common 
stock  and  the  percentage  to  contingent  fund,  a  dividend  would 
then  be  declared  upon  $64,000  of  deferred  stock  debentures,  and 
for  the  balance  of  the  net  profits  still  remaining  another  issue  of 
deferred  stock  debentures  would  be  made  to  said  trustee;  and  so 
on  from  year  to  year. 

The  effect  of  the  above  arrangement  being  that  after  the  pay- 
ment of  all  cash  dividends  to  common  (and  preferred)  stock,  and 
the  setting  aside  of  the  said  percentage  to  the  contingent  fund, 
the  surplus  earnings  then  remaining — representing  the  surplus  assets 
of  the  company — would  be  capitalized  in  the  form  of  deferred 
stock  debentures  and  held  in  trust  for  the  joint  interests  of  the 
original  owners  (or  their  assigns)  and  the  employees — it  being 
especially  provided  that  should  the  company  at  any  time  or  times 
prefer  to  pay  the  amount  of  surplus  earnings  in  cash  directly  to  the 
stockholders  and  the  holders  of  the,  debenture  books  instead  of 
issuing  the  deferred  stock  debentures  therefor,  it  shall  have  the 
right  and  option  of  so  doing. 

Each  year  the  amount  of  the  deferred  stock  debentures  to  be 
issued  to  the  trustee  as  wages  shall  be  calculated  as  above  outlined, 
and  the  percentage  thereof  in  which  each  individual  employee  is 
interested  shall  be  determined  by  the  proportion  that  his  wages  for 
the  year  shall  bear  to  the  whole  salary  list  for  that  period.  This 
amount  then  shall  be  set  down  in  his  debenture  book,  and  upon  this 
sum  he  will  be  entitled  to  receive  through  the  trustee  (when  earned) 
dividends  not  exceeding  6  per  cent  per  annum,  non-cumulatively 
and  subject  to  certain  limitations  set  forth  in  and  made  a  part  of 
his  debenture  book  as  hereinafter  particularly  set  forth.  The  fees 
of  the  trustee  for  the  above  and  all  other  services  to  be  charged  to 
the  general  expense   account   of   the   concern.     The   said  trustee 


Harmonizing  Labor  and  Capital  71 

shall  be  entitled  to  full  statements  of  the  condition  of  the  company 
at  any  time,  and  at  all  times  shall  have  access  to  the  general  books 
of  the  concern. 

A  debenture  book  shall  be  issued  to  each  employee,  and  shall 
contain  a  full  statement  of  the  conditions  upon  which  the  same  is 
issued,  and  shall  be  signed  by  each  of  the  respective  holders  thereof 
in  evidence  of  his  understanding  thereof  and  agreement  thereto. 
Each  debenture  book  shall  be  numbered,  and  the  age,  nationality, 
sex,  etc.,  of  the  employee  shall  be  stated  therein.  It  shall  provide 
among  other  things: 

(a)  That  no  employee  shall  be  entitled  to  participate  in  these 
extra  wages  until  he  shall  have  been  for  one  )^ear  in  the  continuous 
employ  of  the  company. 

(b  That  the  debenture  book  may  be  redeemed  by  the  com- 
pany at  its  option,  at  any  time  upon  the  payment  of  the  total 
principal  sum  or  sums  therein  set  forth. 

(c)  That  nothing  therein  contained  shall  in  any  way  limit  the 
power  of  the  management  in  the  control  of  the  business,  and  that 
their  authority  to  employ  and  discharge  any  employee  shall  not  be 
limited  in  any  way  whatsoever,  but  shall  be  left  entirely  to  the 
discretion  of  the  board  of  directors  and  that  under  no  circum- 
stances shall  the  issuance  of  said  debenture  book  entitle  the  holder 
thereof  to  any  voice  in  the  management  of  the  business. 

(d)  That  in  case  of  losses  in  the  business  in  any  year  or  years, 
the  impairment  thereby  caused  shall  be  made  up  either  (first)  out 
of  subsequent  profits,  or  (second)  out  of  the  contingent  fund, 
or  both,  and  all  accumulated  dividends  upon  the  common  and  pre- 
ferred stock  shall  have  been  paid  in  full  before  the  holder  of  the 
debenture  book  shall  be  entitled  to  any  dividends. 

(e)  That  the  individual  named  in  the  debenture  book  shall, 
after  all  impairments  have  been  made  good  and  all  dividends  on  the 
common  and  preferred  stock  due  and  in  default,  as  above  set  forth, 
have  been  paid,  be  entitled  to  receive,  through  the  said  trustee, 
dividends,  when  earned,  at  a  rate  not  exceeding  6  per  cent  upon 
the  total  of  the  amounts  therein  set  forth,  but  in  no  sense  shall  the 
dividends  upon  the  debenture  book  be  cumulative. 

(f)  That  said  debenture  book  shall  not  be  redeemable  during 
the  life  of  the  employee  named  except  at  the  option  of  the  company. 

(g)  That  in  case  of  the  death  of  the  holder  thereof,  the  same 
shall  form  a  part  of  his  estate  and  shall  be  convertible  into  cash 


72  The  Annals  of  the  American  ._    vdemy 

at  its  par  value  within  thirty  days,  upon  application  to  the  com- 
pany, and  the  same  shall  be  paid  for  out  of  and  held  by  the  con- 
tingent fund  when  the  balance  in  said  fund  will  so  permit,  other- 
wise to  be  paid  for  out  of  the  general  unds  of  the  company  and 
held  in  the  treasury. 

(h)  That  said  debenture  book  shall  not  be  transferable 
without  the  consent  of  the  company. 

(i)  That  it  shall  be  especially  understood  and  agreed  that  all 
calculations  of  profits  and  losses  of  the  business  shall  be  left  entirely 
to  the  discretion  and  best  judgment  of  the  board  of  directors,  and 
that  their  decision  upon  these  and  all  matters  touching  the  ques- 
tion of  depreciation  of  plant,  amounts  charged  to  profit  and 
loss,  valuations  and  inventories,  and  all  other  matters  affecting  the 
business  and  policy  of  the  company,  shall  be  final,  and  from  whose 
decision  there  shall  be  no  right  of  appeal. 

(j)  That  the  "net  earnings"  of  the  concern  shall  comprise 
the  amount  of  the  profits  of  the  business  after  deducting  all  losses 
and  charging  off  an  agreed  percentage  in  the  valuation  of  the  plant 
account  for  depreciation  and  any  other  items  of  doubtful  value, 
at  the  discretion  of  the  board. 

(k)  That  in  case  the  holder  thereof  shall  make  or  attempt  to 
make  any  assignment  of  all  or  any  part  of  his  interest  as  set  forth 
in  said  debenture  book,  the  same  shall,  at  the  option  of  the  company, 
be  immediately  forfeited  as  liquidated  damages  for  violation  of 
this  contract,  and  shall  revert  to  and  be  held  as  a  part  of  the  said 
contingent  fund. 

(1)  That  these  debenture  books  may  be  attached  by  the 
company  for  any  indebtedness  due  to  it,  in  any  department,  by 
the  holder  thereof. 

(m)  That  the  company  reserves  the  right  to  issue  for  capital 
account  preferred  stock  with  cumulative  dividends,  which  new 
issues  shall  in  every  particular  outrank  all  issues  of  deferred  stock 
debentures;  it  being  provided,  however  (as  above  set  forth),  that 
the  holders  of  these  debenture  books  shall  have  the  prior  right  to 
subscribe,  pro  rata,  to  fifty  (50)  per  cent  of  any  and  all  of  said  new 
issues  of  stock. 

The  amount  to  be  set  aside  to  the  contingent  fund  shall  be 
paid  in  cash,  and  may  be  invested  in  legal  and  marketable  securi- 
ties. This  fund  shall  be  held  in  the  first  place  to  make  good  to  the 
company  any  excessive  business  losses  that  cannot  be  met  out  of 


Harmonizing  Labor  and  Capital  73 

the  current  profits  of  the  concern.  It  will  also  purchase  at  par 
the  debenture  books  of  deceased  employees ;  and  any  accumulation 
of  income  therein  shall  be  used  as  a  basis  for  sick  benefits,  etc.,  upon 
such  a  uniform  plan  as  the  amounts  thereof  will  warrant,  the  dis- 
position of  the  available  income  for  that  purpose  to  be  placed  as 
largely  as  practicable  in  the  hands  of  the  employees. 

Tlie  proposition  is  that  the  above  treatment  of  profits  shall 
be  continued  annually  from  year  to  year,  so  that  at  the  end  of  the 
second  year  of  its  operation — after  the  payment  of  the  regular  cash 
dividends  upon  the  common  (and  preferred)  stock  out  of  that  year's 
net  profits  and  the  payment  into  the  contingent  fund — the  divi- 
dend on  the  deferred  stock  debentures  shall  be  declared  and 
paid  upon  the  amount  thereof  held  by  said  trustee;  and  for  the 
remainder  of  the  surplus  earnings  for  the  second  year  another 
issue  of  deferred  stock  debentures  shall  be  made  to  said  trustee,  one- 
half  for  the  use  of  the  common  stockholders  and  the  other  half 
as  extra  wages  to  be  held  for  the  use  of  the  employees,  and  that 
the  amount  thereof  to  which  each  employee  is  entitled  to  credit  shall 
again  be  determined  as  above  set  forth,  and  shall  be  entered  in  the 
respective  debenture  books  and  added  to  the  amounts  of  the 
previous  similar  credit,  and  so  on  from  year  to  year,  it  being  pro- 
vided as  above  set  forth,  that  in  case  the  company  could  not  make 
advantageous  use  of  this  increase  of  capital  it  shall  have  the  option 
of  disbursing  the  amount  in  cash  direct  to  the  employee  and  stock- 
holders. 

Could  the  masters  manipulate  the  bookkeeping  so  as  to  fleece  the 
employees  of  the  percentage  of  profits  to  which  they  were  actually 
entitled?  The  writer  believes  that  this  could  not  be,  and  for  the 
following  reasons : 

(a)  It  will  be  seen  that  under  the  plan  as  suggested,  whatever 
action  the  management  might  take  regarding  the  valuation  of  the 
assets  and  calculation  of  the  annual  profits,  its  decision  would  bear 
equally  upon  the  interests  of  the  stockholders  and  of  the  employees. 

(b)  If  the  management  is  overly  conservative  and  the  actual 
surplus  assets  are  thereby  cut  down,  the  stock  dividend  to  the 
trustee,  representing  both  the  employees  and  the  stockholders, 
would  be  jar  that  year  unduly  diminished;  but  such  action  could 
make  little  or  no  difference  in  the  final  result,  as  the  actual  surplus 
assets  would  still  be  intact,  and  if  not  shown  in  one  year  would 
surely  appear  in  another.     So  that  beyond  a  delay  in  the  division 


74  The  An?ials  of  the  Aj)icrican  Academy 

thereof  those  in  control  of  the  bookkeeping  would  be  powerless  to 
discriminate  against  the  employees,  and  as  already  shown  an 
unfair  settlement  would  bear  equally  upon  capital  and  labor. 
Then,  too: 

(c)  There  could  be  little  or  no  object  in  such  an  attempt,  as  it 
is  not  intended  that  the  surplus,  whatever  the  amount  may  be, 
shall  be  withdrawn  from  the  business  and  distributed,  but  that  the 
whole  of  the  same  shall  be  retained  in  the  business  (so  long  as  it 
can  be  used  advantageously),  and  under  the  plan  as  outlined  all  of 
these  surplus  earnings  shall  be  capitalized  and  subordinated  to  the 
original  investment  and  thus  acting  practically  as  a  guarantee  fund 
to  protect  and  secure  the  same ;  and,  again, 

(d)  It  is  a  part  of  the  plan  that  all  employees,  from  the  lowest 
form  of  unskilled  labor  to  the  highest  salaried  olhcial,  shall  be 
sharers  in  the  dividend  to  wages.  Under  such  an  arrangement  it 
would  be  practically  impossible  for  the  owners  to  equivocate  or  to 
treat  the  question  unfairly. 

It  will  be  generally  conceded  that  the  universal  publication  of 
the  assets  and  liabilities  of  all  business  enterprises  would  greatly 
simplify  and  proportionately  stimulate  trade.  With  the  added 
security  against  losses  that  such  a  system  would  assure,  a  liberal 
extension  of  credits  would  be  the  natural  and  a  safe  outcome.  It 
is  more  difficult,  however,  to  meet  the  question  as  to  what  effect  the 
publication  of  the  earnings,  debts  and  resources  would  have  upon 
the  credit  and  general  business  of  a  single  concern  when  in  direct 
competition  with  others  in  the  same  class  which  continued  to  hold 
to  the  system  of  secrecy.  It  is  clearly  impossible  to  make  a  con- 
clusive statement  concerning  this  question.  Whether  the  publi- 
cation of  accounts  by  one  concern  would  work  to  the  advantage 
or  disadvantage  of  its  secretive  competitors  seems  wholly  prob- 
lematical. So  far  as  we  can  see,  however,  indications  point  with 
some  confidence  to  the  ultimate  success  of  that  concern  which  does 
not  conceal  that  of  which  their  creditors  of  a  right  should  be 
informed. 

Regarding  the  probable  effect  upon  the  general  business  of  the 
concern,  it  seems  reasonable  to  claim  that  the  liberal  and  just 
treatment  of  the  employees  will  surely  appeal  to  the  public  at  large 
and  that  the  advantage  gained  through  the  profitable  influence 
that  such  action  will  have  upon  the  concern's  constituency,  espe- 
cially  among  the   buying  public,   would  largely   overbalance   any 


Har])ionizi)ig  Labor  and  Capital  75 

possible  disadvantage  that  could  come  as  a  result  of  the  exposition 
of  figures  regarding  the  condition  of  its  affairs. 

As  to  the  effect  on  credit  when  the  published  earnings  show  a 
decrease  in  profits  it  is  still  difficult  to  do  more  than  surmise,  though 
if  the  liabilities  of  the  enterprise  are  made  up  more  and  more  each 
year  in  a  growing  percentage  of  subordinated  income- debentures 
w^e  believe  the  publication  of  decreased  profits  would  not  operate 
towards  the  impairment  of  its  credit,  and  certainly  not  until  the 
losses  became  so  extensive  as  to  imperil  the  solvency  of  the  concern 
— in  which  latter  case  it  seems  clear  to  us  that  little  can  be  justly 
said  in  support  of  the  custom  of  concealment. 

Would  the  plan  of  letting  the  employees  generally  become 
part  owners  of  the  concern  place  them  in  a  position  to  give  trouble 
to  the  management  of  the  enterprise,  and  would  they  not  soon 
demand,  as  stockholders,  the  right  to  a  voice  in  the  direction  of 
its  affairs  and  in  the  shaping  of  its  policy?  On  the  contrary,  it  is 
urged : 

(a)  That  with  the  proper  and  timely  guarding  of  the  interests 
of  the  original  investment  through  sufficient,  clear  and  undeniable 
limitations  upon  the  rights  and  powers  carried  with  the  issues  of 
deferred  stock,  such  issues  could  not  be  used  to  the  detriment  of 
vested  interests,  but  rather: 

(b)  That  such  a  pecuniary  interest  in  the  enlarged  success 
of  the  business  would  act  as  a  guarantee  of  loyalty  to  the  manage- 
ment and  as  an  incentive  to  the  employees  to  further  the  legitimate 
business  of  the  concern,  and: 

(c)  That  the  employees  with  a  money  investment  in  the 
enterprise,  if  for  no  higher  reason  than  the  instinct  of  self-preserva- 
tion, would  realize  the  value  and  necessity  for  harmonious  and 
sympathetic  co-operation  between  the  capital,  brains  and  energy 
of  the  concern. 

Would  capital  be  benefited  by  the  operation?  We  claim 
without  reservation  that  it  would — and  for  the  following  reasons : 

(a)  That  the  net  profits  of  the  business  would  be  largely 
increased  through  the  reduction  of  friction;  the  larger  incentive 
of  labor;  the  increase  in  the  physical  capacity  of  the  workers  to 
produce;  the  saving  of  useless  waste;  and  through  the  absence  of 
strikes  and  lock-outs;  as  in  all  of  such  increase  in  net  profits  the 
capital  would  be  an  equal  sharer  with  its  employees. 

(b)  That  the  true  loyalty  and  support  of  all  employees  would 


76  The  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 

greatly  strengthen  the  securfty  of  the  capital  in  the  business  and 
proportionately  add  to  the  real  value  of  the  investment. 

(c)  That  where  adverse  legislation  may  be  easy  of  accom- 
plishment when  it  attacks  the  interests  of  one  man  or  a  small  body 
of  men,  it  would  be  quite  a  dififerent  matter  where  the  interests  of 
all  employees  are  involved. 

(d)  That  the  surplus  profits  would  not  be  paid  out  and  dis- 
tributed, but  would  be  held  in  the  business,  subordinated  to  the 
claims  of  the  original  investment,  and  so  very  materially  adding 
to  the  security  thereof. 

(e)  That  with  a  property  interest  in  the  business  the  tendency 
of  the  operatives  to  shift  from  one  concern  to  another  without  real 
purpose  would  be  reduced  to  the  minimum,  and  that  the  conse- 
quent advantage  to  the  management  would  result  in  a  distinct 
gain  in  the  stability  of  the  business. 

Would  such  a  plan  when  perfected  succeed?  If  it  would 
increase  the  productivity  of  the  workers,  if  it  would  tend  to  elevate 
character,  to  develop  a  greater  loyalty  to  the  concern  and  help  to 
change  an  operative  from  an  automaton  into  a  man,  if  it  would 
strengthen  the  security  of  vested  interests  and  narrow  the  gulf 
between  wealth  and  work,  and  finally,  if  it  would  be  in  the  direction 
of  righteousness  and  justice,  it  must  finally  succeed.  It  cannot  be 
expected  that  at  first  the  introduction  of  such  a  scheme  would  be 
received  by  the  operatives  with  enthusiasm.  It  would  only  be- 
through  the  medium  of  their  more  intelligent  leaders  that  they 
could  be  assured  of  its  benefits,  and  only  after  several  years  of 
successful  operation  could  we  expect  it  to  receive  the  unqualified 
support  of  the  workers.  When,  however,  their  capitalized  extra 
wages  show  an  accumulation  and  they  begin  to  receive  annual  cash 
dividends  upon  the  surplus  earnings  of  previous  years,  we  may  be 
reasonably  assured  of  a  decided  change  of  sentiment  in  its  favor. 

In  the  meanwhile  the  masters  would  do  well  in  avoiding  undue 
antagonism  to  labor  organizations  per  se,  so  far  as  the  large  body 
of  wage-earners  is  concerned,  the  benefits  of  profit-sharing  are  still 
to  them  unproven,  while  the  trade  union  has  in  many  ways  demon- 
strated its  usefulness  in  protecting  the  interests  of  its  members. 
Whether  it  does  more  really  to  help  the  best  interests  of  the  worker 
than  to  hinder,  may  be  an  open  question.  However  this  may  be, 
certain  it  is  that  the  institution  is  strongly  established  in  the  mind 
of  the  workman  as  his  strongest  friend,  his  one  means  of  expression 


Harmonizvig  Labor  and  Capital  yy 

and  his  only  hope  of  material  salvation.  In  its  reverses  as  well  as 
in  its  successes  his  heart  will  remain  loyal  to  his  union,  until  he 
shall  have  been  furnished  a  substitute  which  has  proven  to  him  its 
larger  usefulness. 

In  view  of  the  increasing  tendency  to  incorporate  business, 
this  paper  has  treated  the  question  as  it  relates  to  organized  capital. 
It  is  nevertheless  clearly  true  that  the  same  general  situation 
obtains  in  the  strictly  partnership  concerns  and  that  the  principles 
herein  suggested  could  be  the  more  readily  applied  in  such  cases, 
especially  as  the  power  to  act  is  concentrated  in  the  hands  of  a  few 
individuals  who  have  no  one  else  to  consult. 

In  such  a  case  it  is  suggested,  in  place  of  the  issue  of  the  de- 
ferred stock  debentures,  that  the  surplus  net  earnings — after  the 
payment  of  the  agreed  interest  to  capital,  and  the  assignment  in 
cash  of  the  percentage  to  contingent  fund — shall  be  credited  to  a 
"mutual  reserve  fund"  which  fund  shall  take  the  place  of  the 
proposed  trustee  in  a  stock  company,  and  shall  be  entitled  to 
receive  dividends  (or  interest)  upon  the  same  terms  and  subject  to 
the  same  limitations  provided  for  the  deferred  stock  debentures, 
and  that  said  fund  shall  be  held  for  the  joint  and  equal  benefit  of 
capital  and  employees — the  respective  interests  of  the  employees 
to  be  entered  in  a  pass-book  similar  in  terms  to  the  debenture 
books  herein  particularly  described. 

The  plan  briefly  outlined  is  offered  as  a  suggestion.  Doubtless 
every  point  made  can  be  improved  by  modification  or  substitution. 
If  it  influences  in  a  small  degree  more  earnest  thought  on  the  part  of 
those  in  whom  the  power  is  vested,  towards  the  formation  of  a  com- 
prehensive plan  looking  to  a  more  reasonable  division  of  the  prod- 
uct of  all  and  a  fuller  acknowledgment  of  the  humanity  of  man, 
its  purpose  will  have  been  accomplished. 


III.  The  Housing  Problem 


(79) 


Tenement  House  Regulation— The  Reasons  for 
It— Its  Proper  Limitations 


By  Honorable  Robert  W.  De  Forest,  Tenement  House  Commis- 
sioner of  the  City  of  New  York 


(8i] 


TENEMENT   HOUSE   REGULATION— THE   REASONS 
FOR  IT— ITS    PROPER  LIMITATIONS 


By  Robert  W.  De  Forest 
Tenement  House  Commissioner  of  the  City  of  New  York 


When  Theodore  Roosevelt,  then  Governor  of  the  State  of 
New  York,  attended  the  opening  of  the  Tenement  House  Exhibi- 
tion of  the  Charity  Organization  Society  of  New  York,  and  looked 
over  the  models  of  tenements,  old  and  new,  and  the  charts  which 
showed  the  close  connection  between  the  housing  of  the  vast  ma- 
jority of  that  city's  population,  and  health,  pauperism  and  crime, 
he  said  to  the  few  of  us  who  had  organized  this  exhibition — "Tell 
us  at  Albany  what  to  do,  and  we  will  do  it."  The  result  was  the 
New  York  State  Tenement  House  Commission  of  1900,  the  enact- 
ment last  year  of  the  most  advanced  code  of  tenement  house  laws 
as  yet  put  in  force  in  any  American  city,  and  the  creation  for  the 
first  time  in  this  country  of  a  department  directly  charged  with 
the  oversight  of  the  construction  and  proper  maintenance  of  tene- 
ment houses. 

The  tenement  house  problem  we  had  to  meet  in  New  York 
was  the  most  serious  of  any  city  in  the  civilized  world,  for  in  New 
York,  according  to  the  last  census,  out  of  3,437,202  inhabitants, 
2,273,079,  or  more  than  two-thirds,  lived  in  tenement  houses,  and 
there  were  82,652  of  these  tenements  in  the  city. 

The  interest  in  this  particular  phase  of  the  housing  question 
is  not  confined  to  New  York.  No  one  who  has  followed,  even  care- 
lessly, public  opinion  on  this  subject  can  fail  to  realize  the  hold  it 
has  upon  the  public  conscience.  It -may  be  that  some  tremble  at 
the  effect  upon  their  own  fortunes  of  a  possible  social  revolution, 
and  seek  to  protect  themselves,  for  their  own  sake,  by  trying  to 
make  what  they  call  the  lower  classes  more  comfortable  in  their 
homes.  But  the  large  body  of  men  and  women  in  this  country 
who  are  giving  to  this  subject  attention,  are  doing  so  from  love  of 
their  fellow-men,  and  an  earnest  desire  to  give  them  in  their  homes 
some  of  the  healthful  surroundings  and  comforts  they  enjoy  in 
their  own. 

(83) 


84  The  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 

There  are  few  large  cities  in  America  in  which  there  is  not 
some  tenement  regulation,  and  some  agitation  for  its  extension. 
At  the  moment  there  is  an  active  movement  in  Boston  for  the 
appointment  of  a  commission  to  frame  a  new  code  of  tenement 
house  laws  for  that  city.  There  is  a  similar  movement  in  Chicago 
and  in  Cincinnati.  Nor  is  this  activity  confined  to  the  larger 
cities.  Kansas  City  in  the  West,  Hartford  in  the  East,  Yonkers, 
Syracuse  and  Rochester  in  New  York,  are  already  moving  in  the 
same  direction,  and  the  subject  is  receiving  close  attention  in 
Washington,  Cleveland  and  Pittsburg. 

The  New  York  law  of  last  winter  was  a  state  law  applicable 
to  all  cities  of  the  first  class.  It  included  Buffalo  as  well  as  New 
York,  and  Buffalo  did  its  full  part  in  securing  the  enactment  of  the 
law.  Philadelphia  is  emphatically  the  City  of  Homes,  and^not  of 
tenements.  Fortunately  for  Philadelphia,  its  working  classes 
are  almost  exclusively  housed  in  single  family  dwellings.  It  has, 
as  most  of  you  know,  an  admirable  code  of  tenement  house  laws, 
which  has  proved  very  useful  to  us  at  New  York  in  preparing  ours, 
and  it  has  its  Octavia  Hill  Association  to  advance  the  cause  of 
housing  reform. 

In  some  quarters  benevolent  people  are  proposing  to  build 
model  tenements.  That  is  good  as  far  as  it  goes,  but  if  at  the  same 
time  other  people,  not  benevolent,  who  have  no  motive  but  gain 
for  themselves,  are  permitted  to  build  tenements  which  are  not 
models,  the  extent  of  progress  is  very  limited.  What  we  must  do, 
first  and  foremost,  is  to  secure  proper  legislation,  using  that  term 
in  its  broadest  sense,  to  include  city  ordinance,  as  well  as  state  law. 
Legislation  to  regulate  building,  so  as  to  secure  for  new  buildings 
proper  air  and  light  space  and  proper  sanitation;  legislation  to 
regulate,  in  buildings  old  and  new,  their  maintenance  so  that  health 
conditions  may  be  improved  and  at  least  not  be  impaired;  legis- 
lation, moreover,  that  provides  the  means  for  its  own  enforcement, 
by  proper  inspection. 

Most  of  us  have  been  brought  up  to  believe  that,  as  owners  of 
real  estate,  we  could  build  on  it  what  we  pleased,  build  as  high  as 
we  pleased,  and  sink  our  buildings  as  low  as  we  pleased.  Our  ideas 
of  what  constitutes  property  rights  and  what  constitutes  liberty 
are  largely  conventional.  They  vary  with  time  and  place.  They 
are  different  in  different  countries.  Liberty,  proper  liberty,  to- 
day, may,  under  changing  conditions,  become  license  to-morrow. 


Tcnanent  House  Regulation  85 

I  came  home  from  Europe  not  long  since  with  a  French  friend, 
who  had  gone  home  to  his  native  country  to  take  possession  of  his 
ancestral  estates.  He  told  me  of  having  found  the  trees  grown 
up  quite  thickly  around  his  father's  country  home,  and  of  the 
difficulties  he  had  encountered  in  obtaining  permission  from  the 
public  authorities  to  cut  down  some  of  them,  which  was  finally 
only  granted  on  condition  that  he  replanted  elsewhere.  That  his 
trees  could  only  be  cut  down  with  the  consent  of  the  public  au- 
thorities, and  that  he  could  properly  be  required  to  replant  else- 
where as  a  condition  of  obtaining  that  consent,  seemed  to  him  a 
part  of  the  eternal  order  of  things.  He  no  more  questioned  it  in 
his  mind  than  we,  who  live  in  cities,  question  the  propriety  of 
obtaining  from  the  city  building  department  a  permit  to  build, 
based  upon  approval  of  our  architect's  plans. 

Lecky,  in  one  of  his  later  books,  speaking  of  sanitary  legisla- 
tion, says:  "Few  things  are  more  curious  than  to  observe  how 
rapidly,  during  the  past  generation,  the  love  of  individual  liberty 
has  declined;  how  contentedly  the  English  race  are  committing 
great  departments  of  their  lives  to  the  web  of  regulations  restricting 
and  encircling  them."  It  is  not  that  love  of  liberty  has  declined' 
it  is  that  the  English  race  are  meeting  new  conditions  with  the 
same  genius  with  which  they  have  evolved  their  great  system  of 
common  law.  Living,  as  most  of  them  did  a  century  ago,  in 
separate  houses,  and  in  small  villages  or  towns,  every  man  could 
build  as  he  pleased  and  could  maintain  his  building  as  he  pleased 
without  seriously  endangering  the  liberty  of  his  neighbors,  but  with 
the  steady  movement  of  the  population  from  the  country  to  the 
city,  and  the  marvelous  growth  of  cities,  not  only  horizontally  but 
vertically,  new  conditions  must  be  met,  and  the  property  rights 
and  liberty  of  one  neighbor  must  be  limited  to  protect  the  property 
rights  and  liberty  of  another.  If  a  man  built  an  isolated  house  in 
the  country,  without  light  or  air  for  the  bedrooms,  and  kept  it  in 
such  filthy  condition  as  to  breed  disease,  it  is  a  fair  question  whether 
his  liberty  should  be  infringed  by  any  building  or  health  regulation. 
He  may  be  fairly  left  free  to  suffer  the  consequences  of  his  own  mis- 
use of  his  liberty.  His  death,  and  that  of  his  family,  from  disease 
so  caused  may,  as  an  awful  example,  do  more  to  advance  civiliza- 
tion by  making  his  neighbors  more  careful,  than  would  his  life  and 
theirs  under  enforced  sanitary  regulation.  But  if  that  same  man 
is  separated  f i  om  you  and  me  only  by  a  board  partition  or  twelve- 


86  The  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 

inch  wall,  and  our  families  meet  every  time  they  go  into  the  street 
or  into  the  back  yard,  his  liberty  must  be  restricted  in  some  degree 
in  order  to  enable  you  and  me  to  enjoy  ours. 

How  and  why  has  tenement  house  law  been  evolved  in  Amer- 
ican cities?  In  the  same  way  in  which  the  Anglo-Saxon  mind  deals 
with  any  such  problems.  Just  as  it  evolved  common  law,  and  for 
the  same  reasons.  First  a  case — that  is,  an  evil — to  be  remedied; 
afterward  a  decision — the  application  of  the  remedy,  and  the  es- 
tablishment of  a  principle  or  law  by  which  similar  evils  shall  be 
remedied.  It  is  not  according  to  the  genius  of  our  race  to  provide 
the  remedy  in  advance  of  the  supposed  disease.  Better  be  sure 
that  the  disease  really  exists,  even  if  some  few  die  from  it,  and  then 
provide  the  remedy  which  will  be  sure  to  meet  actual  conditions, 
than  to  burden  the  community  with  advance  remedies  for  diseases 
that  after  all  may  prove  to  be  imaginary.  Even  if  the  disease  be 
not  imaginary,  such  remedies  are  apt  to  be  worse  than  the  disease 
itself.  Thus,  in  Anglo-Saxon  countries,  a  conflagration  has  usually 
preceded  precautions  against  fire,  and  the  evils  of  sunless,  airless 
and  unwholesome  tenements  have  preceded  any  attempt  to  prevent 
these  deplorable  conditions.  Eventually  we  act,  and  when  we  do 
we  act  practically. 

It  may  be  well  to  define  what  is  meant  by  a  tenement  house, 
for  without  definition  there  is  infinite  confusion  in  the  use  of  this 
term.  In  one  of  our  recent  civil  service  examinations  in  New 
York,  a  candidate,  evidently  "learned  in  the  law,"  or  supposing 
himself  to  be  so,  defined  it  as  being  "That  which  is  neither  land 
nor  hereditament."  It  has  its  popular  and  its  legal  meaning. 
Popularly,  it  is  used  to  designate  the  habitations  of  the  poorest 
classes,  without  much  thought  of  the  ntimber  of  families  living 
under  any  particular  roof.  The  National  Cyclopedia  significantly 
says:  "Tenement  houses,  commonly  speaking,  are  the  poorest 
class  of  apartment  houses.  They  are  generally  poorly  built, 
without  sufficient  accommodation  for  light  and  ventilation,  and 
are  overcrowded.  The  middle  rooms  often  receive  no  daylight, 
and  it  is  not  uncommon  in  them  for  several  families  to  be  crowded 
into  one  of  their  dark  and  unwholesome  rooms.  Bad  air,  want 
of  sunlight  and  filthy  surroundings  work  the  physical  ruin  of  the 
wretched  tenants,  while  their  mental  and  moral  condition  is 
equally  lowered.  Attempts  to  reform  the  evils  of  tenement  life 
have  been  going  on  for  some  time  in  many  of  the  great  cities  of  the 
world." 


Tenement  House  Regulation  87 

Legally,  tenement  Is  applied  to  any  communal  dwelling,  in- 
habited by  three,  or  in  some  cities  four,  or  more  families,  Hving 
independently,  who  do  their  cooking  on  the  premises.  It  includes 
apartment  houses,  flat-houses  and  flats,  as  well  as  what  is  popularly 
called  a  tenement,  if  only  built  to  accommodate  three,  or  as  the 
case  may  be  four,  or  more  famiUes  who  cook  in  the  house.  It  is  in 
its  legal  sense  that  I  use  the  term.  At  first  blush  it  may  seem 
objectionable  to  class  apartment  houses,  flat-houses  and  tenements, 
so  called,  together,  and  subject  them  to  the  same  code  of  regulation. 
Practically,  it  has  never  been  possible  to  draw  any  line  of  separation 
between  different  houses  which  are  popularly  designated  by  these 
different  words.  Nor  has  anyone  ever  suggested  any  regulation 
proper  for  the  poorest  tenement,  using  the  word  now  in  its  popular 
sense,  which  would  not  be  voluntarily,  and  as  matter  of  self-inter- 
est, complied  with  in  the  most  expensive  apartment  house.  Nor  is 
there  any  certainty  that  what  to-day  is  popularly  called  an  apart- 
ment house  may  not  to-morrow,  in  popular  parlance,  be  a  tenement 
of  the  worst  kind.  My  own  grandmother,  within  my  own  recollec- 
tion, lived  in  what  was  then  one  of  the  finest  houses,  in  one  of  the 
most  fashionable  streets  of  New  York.  Not  long  since  I  passed 
the  house,  and  noticed  on  the  front  door  a  sign  reading,  "French 
fiats  for  Colored  People." 

In  its  earliest  form  (and  many  cities  have  not  yet  passed  be- 
yond the  first  stage)  the  tenement  was  a  discredited  private  house, 
or  other  building,  not  originally  built  for  the  occupation  of  several 
families,  but  altered  for  the  purpose.  Each  floor  of  what  was  orig- 
inally a  private  dwelling  was  changed  so  that  it  could  be  occupied 
by  a  family.  '  Later  on — it  may  be  at  the  beginning — each  floor 
was  subdivided  between  front  and  rear,  so  that  it  could  be  occupied 
by  two  families.  One  of  the  chief  evils  of  such  tenements  arose 
from  cellar  occupation,  and  consequently  some  of  the  earliest  tene- 
ment house  regulations  relate  to  the  occupation  of  cellars. 

In  its  second  stage  the  tenement  house  is  built  for  the  purpose, 
imitating,  not  infrequently,  in  a  servile  manner,  the  arrangement 
of  the  altered  house,  with  its  dark  rooms,  and  only  gradually  being 
adapted  to  a  new  architectural  form  growing  out  of  its  special  use. 
The  introduction  of  running  water  and  city  health  regulations 
made  it  possible  and  desirable  to  locate  water-closets  inside. 
Courts  and  air-shafts  increased  in  size.  Fortunately,  the  process 
of  evolution  is  not  exhausted,  and  is  still  going  on. 


88  T/ic  Anna/s  of  the  American  Academy 

The  tenement  is  still  regarded  in  many  places  as  an  exotic,  not 
adapted  to  our  climate.  But,  judging  from  the  history  of  New- 
York  and  other  cities,  West  and  East,  the  tenement  house  has  come 
to  stay,  and  is,  perhaps,  destined  to  crowd  out  other  and  better 
forms  of  housing.  I  remember  well  when  the  first  tenement  to 
be  dignified  by  the  term  apartment  house  was  built  in  New  York. 
It  was  in  the  early  70's.  Now  it  is  a  prevailing  type  of  new 
building  for  dwelling  purposes  on  Manhattan  Island.  There  were 
no  less  than  82,652  tenements  in  Greater  New  York  at  the  time 
of  the  last  census.  The  development  of  the  tenement  has  been 
largely  influenced  by  legislation  intended  to  prevent  its  worst  evils. 
To  test  the  reason  for  such  legislation,  and  to  define  its  limitations, 
a  brief  summary  of  particular  subjects  of  regulation  is  desirable. 

Protection  against  fire  is  almost  universal.  Structural  pro- 
visions directed  to  this  end  are  contained  in  the  building  laws  of 
all  cities.  In  New  York,  Philadelphia,  San  Francisco,  Jersey  City, 
Providence,  Syracuse  and  Nashville,  all  tenements  must  have  fire- 
escapes.  All  tenements  over  two  stories  in  height  must  have 
fire-escapes  in  St.  Louis,  Baltimore,  Louisville,  Minneapolis,  St. 
Paul,  Denver,  Toledo  and  Columbus.  In  Chicago,  Cleveland  and 
Cincinnati,  this  rule  only  applies  to  tenements  over  three  stories 
in  height.  In  many  cities  tenements  must  be  fireproof  throughout 
when  over  a  certain  height.  In  Philadelphia  this  is  true  of  all  over 
four  stories ;  in  Washington  of  those  over  five  stories ;  in  New  York, 
Buffalo,  Louisville,  Minneapolis  and  Denver,  of  those  over  six 
stories  in  height.     In  Boston,  the  limit  is  65  feet. 

Light  and  ventilation  are  protected  by  minimum  open  spaces. 
In  Philadelphia  there  must  be  open  spaces  at  the  side  or  rear  equal 
to  one-fifth  of  the  lot  area,  and  the  minimum  width  of  all  spaces  is 
eight  feet.  In  Buffalo,  under  the  local  law  in  force  before  the 
general  state  act  of  1901  was  passed,  the  minimum  width  of  any 
outer  court  was  six  feet  in  two-story  buildings,  eight  feet  in  three 
and  four-story  buildings,  and  one  additional  foot  in  width  for  each 
additional  story.  The  minimum  interior  court  was  eight  by  ten. 
In  Boston,  a  clear  open  space  at  the  rear  must  be  left  equal  to  one- 
half  the  width  of  the  street  on  w'hich  the  tenement  fronts,  and  there 
must  be  two  open  spaces  at  least  ten  feet  wide.  In  some  cities  the 
required  court  area  is  expressed  in  square  feet,  without  regard  to 
minimum  width  or  length,  and  increases  proportionately  with  the 
height  of  the  building.     This  principle  is  adopted  in  New  York, 


Tenement  House  Regulatiojt  89 

where  the  minimum  width  of  exterior  courts  in  buildings  five  stories 
high  is  six  feet  on  the  lot  line  and  twelve  feet  between  wings,  and 
the  minimum  area  of  interior  courts  on  the  lot  line  in  buildings 
of  the  same  height  is  twelve  by  twenty-four,  reduced  this  winter  in 
three-story  tenements  to  eight  by  fourteen.  Such  buildings  must 
have  an  open  yard  at  least  twelve  feet  wide  in  the  rear.  The 
height  of  rooms  is  almost  universally  regulated,  the  minimum 
usually  being  eight  feet.  The  height  of  tenements  is  limited  in 
many  cities. 

Water  supply  is  prescribed.  In  New  York,  water  must  be 
furnished  on  each  floor.  In  Philadelphia  and  Buffalo,  on  each 
floor,  for  each  set  of  rooms.  In  Boston,  Chicago,  Jersey  City  and 
Kansas  City,  in  one  or  more  places  in  the  house  or  yard. 

Water-closet  accommodation  is  very  generally  prescribed.  In 
Philadelpliia,  and  in  New  York  under  the  new  law,  there  must  be 
one  for  every  apartment.  Under  the  old  law  in  New  York,  and  at 
present  in  Chicago  and  Detroit,  there  must  be  one  for  every  two 
families.  In  other  cities  the  unit  is  the  number  of  persons.  It  is 
twenty  persons  in  Boston,  Baltimore  and  Denver;  ten  persons  in 
Rochester. 

The  reasons  for  tenement  regulation  may  be  roughly  classed  as 
follows — precise  classification  is  impossible,  as  it  is  seldom  that  any 
particular  regulation  is  attributable  solely  to  a  single  reason : 

The  protection  of  property  rights  in  adjacent  property.  Such 
is  the  reason  for  regulations  requiring  fireproof  construction  in 
whole  or  in  part.  Such  is  the  chief  reason  for  limitations  of  height 
and  for  leaving  an  obligatory  open  space  at  the  rear  of  each  house 
so  as  to  preserve  thorough  ventilation  for  the  block.  The  protec- 
tion of  neighbors  and  the  community  fr.om  unsanitary  conditions, 
by  which  they  might  be  affected,  or  which  might  breed  contagion. 
Under  this  class  falls  the  great  body  of  sanitary  law  and  tenement 
house  regulation  of  a  sanitary  kind.  That  all  legislation  which 
falls  within  these  classes  can  be  justified  as  a  proper  restraint  on  the 
liberty  and  property  rights  of  some,  in  order  to  protect  and  preserve 
the  property  rights  and  liberty  of  others,  is  clear. 

There  is  another  and  increasing  class  of  regulations  intended 
to  protect  the  life  and  health  of  those  who  cannot,  it  is  supposed, 
protect  themselves  by  any  means  within  their  control.  Fire- 
escapes,  which  are  almost  universally  required  by  law  in  non-fire- 
proof tenement  houses,  belong  to  this  class.     There  is  no  such  regu- 


90  The  Anttals  of  the  American  Academy 

lation  for  private  houses,  and  there  is  usually  no  such  requirement 
for  two-family  houses.  The  reason  for  the  fire-escape  in  tenements 
and  hotels  must  rest  either  on  the  supposed  inability  of  the  inmates 
to  protect  themselves,  as  the  owner  of  a  private  house  can  protect 
himself  and  his  family,  or  else  from  the  greater  number  of  persons 
exposed  to  risk.  Of  such  class  also  is  the  law  providing  that  there 
be  a  separate  water-closet  for  each  apartment,  as  in  New  York,  or 
for  every  two  families,  as  in  Detroit  and  elsewhere,  and  that  lights 
be  kept  burning  in  public  halls  at  night.  No  such  regulations 
exist  for  private  houses.  They  can  be  only  justified  in  tenement 
houses  on  the  theory  that  the  tenants  in  such  houses  must  live  in 
them,  cannot  control  their  maintenance  in  these  particulars,  and 
are  entitled  to  the  protection  of  affirmative  law  for  these  necessities 
or  conveniences.  It  may  be  answered  that  they  need  not  rent 
rooms  in  houses  not  furnished  with  separate  water-closets,  and  the 
halls  of  which  are  not  kept  lighted,  unless  they  wish  to,  and  that 
they  should  not  be  restricted  in  their  liberty  to  rent  rooms  in  such 
houses,  it  may  be  at  a  lower  rent,  if  they  so  desire.  The  reply  may 
be,  and  in  some  cities  would  properly  be,  that  they  would  have  no 
choice  unless  the  law  intervened  to  protect  them.  Moreover,  it 
might  be  urged  that  in  the  provision  for  separate  water-closets  for 
each  apartment,  and  in  the  lighting  of  public  halls,  there  was  an 
element  of  protection  to  public  health  and  morals  in  which  the 
community  had  an  interest,  and  which  the  community  by  regula- 
tion should  insure. 

I  have  sought  by  these  illustrations  to  point  the  closeness  of 
the  dividing  line  between  justifiable  restriction  of  the  individual 
liberty  of  the  house  builder  and  house  owner,  for  the  protection  of 
the  liberty  of  others,  and  paternalism.  It  is  undoubtedly  true, 
as  Mr.  Lecky  states  in  the  concluding  part  of  the  paragraph  to 
which  I  have  already  referred,  that  "the  marked  tendency  of  these 
generations  to  extend  the  stringency  and  area  of  coercive  legisla- 
tion in  the  fields  of  sanitary  reform  is  one  that  should  be  carefully 
watched.  Its  exaggerations  may,  in  more  ways  than  one,  greatly 
injure  the  very  classes  it  is  intended  to  benefit."  There  is  real 
danger  lest  in  our  eagerness  and  earnestness  to  improve  the  con- 
dition of  others,  we  legislate  from  the  point  of  view  of  those  fathers 
and  mothers  who  are  alwa3^s  ready  to  regulate  the  affairs  of  every 
family  but  their  own,  and  break  dowa  the  habit  of  self-dependence 


Tenement  House  Regulation  91 

and  the  spirit  of  individual  responsibility  upon  wliicli  tlie  vigor  of 
our  American  social  fabric  so  largely  depends 

Perhaps  the  most  important  limitation  to  tenement  house 
reform,  in  the  construction  of  new  tenements,  is  the  question  of 
cost.  If  tenements  cannot  be  rented  at  a  profit  they  will  not  be 
built.  There  are  many  things  which  it  would  be  desirable  to  have 
in  a  tenement,  each  one  of  which  adds  to  its  cost,  and  if  they  be 
required  by  law  to  an  extent  which  makes  it  unremunerative, 
tenement  building  will  cease.  It  is  undoubtedly  desirable  that 
all  tenements  should  be  fireproof  throughout;  indeed,  the  same 
may  be  said  of  private  houses.  In  1892,  Boston  so  prescribed; 
but  few,  if  any,  were  erected,  and  the  law  was  consequently  modi- 
fied in  1899. 

The  amount  of  rent  which  the  average  American  working- 
man  in  any  particular  city  can  pay  approximates  a  fixed  quantity. 
Any  legislation  which  materially  increases  this  rent,  or  which  pre- 
vents building  and  therefore  prevents  his  finding  shelter,  is  quite 
certain  to  be  repealed.  This  proposition,  however,  is  not  so  dis- 
couraging as  it  may  appear  at  the  outset.  The  standard  of  living 
among  our  working  classes  is  steadily  improving.  What  yesterday 
was  a  luxury,  to-day  is  a  necessity.  In  many  cities,  apartments 
which  are  not  provided  with  running  water  are  unrentable. 
Bathing  facilities  are  increasingly  in  demand,  and  are  frequently 
being  provided.  Families  that  have  once  lived  in  apartments 
where  the  bedrooms  have  light  and  air,  will  not  hire  apartments 
which  are  dark  and  unventilated.  The  supply  must  meet  the 
demand.  Interest  rates  are  receding;  economies  in  construction 
are  being  introduced,  which  some  time  ago  were  unknown,  largely 
by  the  building  of  houses  by  the  wholesale.  The  large  profits 
which  were  demanded  as  the  normal  income  on  tenement  houses 
in  the  past  are  no  longer  expected.  Rooms  up  to  the  standard  of 
the  modern  tenement  house  law  can  be  provided  without  increasing 
the  rental. 

Another  limitation  in  many  cities  is  the  prevailing  lot  dimen- 
sion. If  Dante  were  to-day  writing  his  "  Inferno,"  the  lowest  depth 
would  be  reserved  for  those  men  who  invented  the  twenty-five  foot 
lot  and  imposed  it  on  so  many  American  cities.  In  unbuilt  dis- 
tricts, where  several  lots,  whatever  be  their  dimensions,  can  be 
purchased  and  built  upon  together,  the  lot  dimension  does  not 
necessarily  control  the  frontage  of  the  building,  and  the  tendency 


92  TJic  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 

in  such  districts  in  New  York  is  to  build  tenement  houses  of  wider 
frontage,  which  admit  of  better  court  arrangement,  but  there 
are  usually  so  many  lots  separately  owned,  and  so  many  which 
are  situated  between  lots  already  built  upon,  so  that  their  enlarge- 
ment is  impossible,  that  any  proposed  legislation  prescribing  court 
areas  which,  however  desirable,  puts  the  prevailing  lot  unit  at  a 
disadvantage,  will  meet  with  overwhelming  resistance.  No  better 
illustration  of  this  can,  perhaps,  be  found  than  the  story  of  New 
York  legislation  this  winter,  of  which  I  intend  to  speak.  From 
the  point  of  view  of  proper  tenement  house  construction,  happy 
that  city  in  which  land  is  sold  by  the  front  foot,  instead  of  by  any 
Procrustean  lot  unit. 

There  is  another  practical  limitation,  not  necessarily  to  the 
enactment  of  tenement  house  law,  but  to  its  permanence,  in  the 
extent  to  which  it,  either  actually  or  supposedly,  interferes  with 
the  profits  of  builders  and  material  men,  and  perhaps  no  better 
illustration  of  this  practical  limitation  can  be  given  than  a  simple 
recital  of  the  contest  over  the  radical  amendment  of  the  New  York 
law  which  has  been  waged  at  Albany  during  the  past  few  weeks, 
and  which  terminated  only  a  few  days  ago.  The  New  York  law 
of  1 90 1  marked  the  longest  step  in  advance  that  tenement  house 
reform  in  that  state  has  ever  taken,  though  in  its  provisions  for 
court  areas,  the  particular  point  in  which  it  was  assailed  this  win- 
ter, it  does  not  go,  so  far  as  the  Philadelphia  law,  and  but  little 
further  than  the  previous  Buffalo  law.  It  unquestionably  in- 
creased the  cost  of  construction  by  its  fireproof  provisions,  as  well 
as,  though  in  a  less  degree,  by  its  larger  court  areas.  That  there 
would  be,  this  winter,  organized  effort  on  the  part  of  building  and 
real  estate  interests  to  modify  it  was  certain  and  inevitable.  Many 
bills  were  introduced  amending  it,  but  my  illustration  only  con- 
cerns two,  the  City  Administration  bill,  in  the  preparation  of  which 
I  myself  had  part,  and  a  bill  introduced  by  a  Brooklyn  member  of 
the  Legislature  in  the  interest  of  Brooklyn  builders  and  material 
men,  who  claimed  that  they  represented  the  people  of  Brooklyn. 
It  is  a  fair  question  whether  Brooklyn  did  not  really  have  a  griev- 
ance against  last  winter's  law.  One  of  the  prevailing  types  of 
Brooklyn  tenements  is  a  three-story  house  on  a  twenty-five  foot 
lot,  with  two  families  on  a  floor,  making  six  families  in  all,  each 
apartment  running  through  from  front  to  rear.  These  houses  had 
been  built  with  interior  courts  or  air-shafts  about  two  and  a  half 


Tenement  House  Regulation  93 

feet  wide  and  ten  feet  long.  These  light-shafts  were  supposed  to 
light  and  ventilate  the  interior  rooms  of  each  apartment.  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  they  furnished  little  light  or  ventilation  to  any  bed- 
rooms below  the  top  floor.  The  same  type  of  air-shaft  in  taller 
tenements  of  Manhattan  was  one  of  the  chief  evils  against  which 
the  new  law  was  directed.  These  evils  were  undoubtedly  less  in  a 
three-story  building,  but  still  existed.  The  minimum  interior 
court  or  air-shaft  permitted  by  the  new  law  in  such  buildings  was 
eleven  feet  wide  by  twenty-two  feet  long.  Such  a  court  prevented 
the  building  of  this  type  of  house,  and  no  tenements  of  this  type 
were  consequently  built  on  twenty-five  foot  lots  from  the  time  when 
the  law  went  into  effect.  The  Brooklyn  bill  sought  to  amend  the 
law,  as  respects  three  and  four-story  houses,  by  permitting  a  return 
to  the  old  air-shaft,  with  an  increased  width  of  six  inches,  and  with 
a  somewhat  increased  length,  making  it  three  by  twelve.  We 
conceded  that  under  the  law  it  was  impossible  to  build  this  par- 
ticular type  of  tenement  on  a  twenty-five  foot  lot,  with  each  apart- 
ment running  through  from  front  to  rear,  but  we  demonstrated 
that  it  was  perfectly  practicable  to  build  what  seemed  to  us  a  much 
better  two-families-on-a-floor  tenement  on  such  a  lot,  by  putting 
one  apartment  in  the  front  and  another  in  the  rear;  that  it  was 
perfectly  practicable  to  build,  under  the  law,  apartments  running 
through  from  front  to  rear  on  a  somewhat  larger  lot,  and  that  the 
law  interfered  with  no  other  current  type  except  the  one  in  ques- 
tion. The  separate  front  and  rear  apartments,  which  were  prac- 
tical under  the  new  law,  are  usual  in  Manhattan,  and  the  rent 
obtainable  from  the  front  apartment  differs  but  little  from  that 
obtainable  from  the  rear  apartment.  Our  Brooklyn  friends  in- 
sisted that  though  Brooklyn  was  a  borough  of  New  York  and  only 
separated  from  Manhattan  by  the  East  River,  Brooklyn  people 
were  so  accustomed  to  apartments  running  through  from  front  to 
rear  that  they  would  not  rent  rear  apartments,  and  indeed,  that 
the  social  distinction  between  families  who  could  afford  to  live  in 
the  front  apartment,  and  those  who  would  be  forced  to  live  in  the 
rear  apartment,  was  so  great  that  they  w^ould  not  rent  apartments 
in  the  same  house. 

This  proposition  may  seem  strained,  but  we  of  the  City  Ad- 
ministration were  finally  satisfied  that  so  much  regard  should  be 
paid,  to  local  habits  and  customs,  that  it  was  wise  to  modify  our 
minimum  court  areas  in  three-story  houses  to  such  a  point  as  would 


94  The  Annals  of  the  Americmi  Acadejuy 

permit  the  building  of  this  particular  type  of  Brooklyn  house. 
Plans  were  then  made  which  demonstrated  beyond  peradventure 
that  by  reducing  the  minimum  court  area  to  8x14,  instead  of 
3x12,  this  particular  type  of  house  could  be  built,  with  bedrooms 
infinitely  better  lighted  and  better  ventilated  than  those  opening 
upon  the  narrow  shaft.  One  would  have  supposed  that  this  im- 
proved plan,  which  permitted  Brooklyn  builders  to  construct  a 
front-to-rear  apartment,  for  which  they  claimed  so  many  advan- 
tages, would  have  been  received  with  acclamation  as  a  solution  of 
the  difficulty.  Not  at  all.  Some  insisted  that  Brooklyn  must 
have  what  it  was  accustomed  to,  narrow  air-shaft  and  all.  Others 
more  openminded,  while  frankly  admitting  that  the  new  plans 
made  better  apartments,  which  should  bring  in  an  increased  rental 
of  from  fifty  cents  to  a  dollar  a  month,  insisted  that  tenants  would 
not  pay  more  rent,  and  that  because  the  buildings  under  these  new 
plans  cost  say  $800  per  house  more  than  under  the  old  plans,  they 
would  not  be  commercially  profitable,  and  therefore  would  not  be 
built.  Not  a  word  was  said  as  to  the  interests  of  tenement  dwell- 
ers. There  was  no  dearth  of  apartments  in  Brooklyn  at  current- 
rents.  Indeed,  the  supply  was  far  beyond  the  demand.  The 
whole  issue  turned  on  the  commercial  profitableness  of  building 
under  the  law,  as  amended  by  the  City  Administration  bill,  to  meet 
this  Brooklyn  condition.  The  Brooklyn  builders  were  perfectly 
frank  in  their  arguments.  They  started  with  the  premise  that  the 
building  of  tenements  in  Brooklyn  must  be  made  commercially 
profitable;  that  buildings  under  the  new  plan,  with  a  minimum 
court  area  of  8x14,  would  not  be  commercially  profitable,  because 
about  $800  was  added  to  their  cost,  and  therefore  insisted  that  the 
law  should  be  amended  to  meet  their  ideas  of  commercial  profit- 
ableness. That  the  purpose  of  the  law  was  not  to  promote  building 
operations,  or  increase  the  value  of  real  estate,  but  to  provide 
healthy  habitation  for  tenement  dwellers,  and  that  that  purpose 
was  certainly  being  accomplished  under  the  new  law  so  long  as 
tenement  dwellers  could  house  themselves  without  any  increase 
in  rent,  was  ignored,  nor  if  it  had  been  urged  would  it  have  seemed 
to  them  an  argument  worth  considering. 

I  am  happy  to  say  that  they  did  not  succeed,  but  they  demon- 
strated the  influence  which  can  be  exerted  upon  the  average  legis- 
lator by  men  of  their  type  through  their  trade  and  allied  labor 
organizations,  and  had  those  who,  at  the  moment,  represented  the 


Tenement  House  Regulation  95 

unorganized  public  in  the  cities  been  less  active,  and  had  the  force 
of  public  opinion  as  voiced  by  the  press  Deen  less  outspoken,  the 
result  might  have  been  different. 

The  advance  of  tenement  house  reform  undoubtedly  means 
some  diminution  in  the  profit  of  the  landlord,  or  some  increase  in 
rent.  Improved  tenements  must  cost  more.  Someone  must  pay 
that  cost.  If  any  material  rise  in  rents  would  produce  such  opposi- 
tion to  the  law  as  to  repeal  or  modify  it,  then  either  the  cost  must 
be  borne  by  the  landlord,  or  the  law  must  be  modified.  Whether 
the  landlord's  rent  will  by  the  law  proposed  in  any  city  be  dimin- 
ished below  the  point  of  legitimate  profit,  cannot  be  certainly 
demonstrated  until  the  experiment  be  tried.  Some  enlightened 
landlords,  with  a  sense  of  their  obligations  toward  their  tenants, 
are  perfectly  willing  to  suffer  this  small  diminution  of  income. 
Others  are  not,  and  the  others,  who  usually  constitute  the  majority, 
in  alliance  with  the  builders  and  material  men,  will  always  seek  to 
prevent  legislation  which  affects  their  pockets.  Tenement  house 
reform  must  always  be  militant,  not  only  to  gain  ground,  but  to 
hold  the  ground  that  has  once  been  gained. 

There  is  something  for  almost  everyone  to  do.  Let  none  sup- 
pose that  our  cities,  however  small,  will  remain  free  from  the  evils 
of  the  tenement  house,  which  in  larger  cities  has  necessarily  evolved 
in  self-protection  tenement  house  regulation.  The  tenement  has 
come  to  the  United  States,  like  the  Canada  thistle,  to  grow  and  to 
multiply.  The  smaller  cities  need  not  go  through  the  bitter  ex- 
perience which  is  teaching  New  York  and  other  cities  their  lesson. 
They  can,  by  timely  regulation,  prevent  the  crystallization  of  un- 
sanitary conditions  into  brick  and  mortar.  I  do  not  recommend  the 
adoption  in  every  city  of  the  New  York  law.  It  was  framed  to 
meet  the  special  conditions  there  existent.  The  remedy  should 
be  no  greater  than  the  prevailing  or  expected  disease  warrants.  A 
few  elementary  regulations  with  regard  to  court  areas,  vacant 
spaces,  and  regular  and  official  inspection  to  make  certain  that 
these  simple  regulations  are  followed  in  construction  and  that 
ordinary  sanitary  rules  are  complied  with  in  maintenance,  will 
suffice,  if  there  always  be  a  keen  eye  to  look  some  years  ahead,  to 
meet  future  needs  before  they  make  themselves  unpleasantly  mani- 
fest in  your  own  surroundings,  and  before  conditions  are  created, 
as  in  New  York,  which  cannot  be  changed  except  at  great  cost  to 
owners  and  to  the  municipality. 


The  Housing  Problem  in  Chicago 


By  Miss  Jane  Addams,  Hull  House,  Chicago 


(97) 


THE  HOUSING  PROBLEM  IN  CHICAGO 

By  Miss  Jane  Addams 
Hull  House,  Chicago 

In  considering  the  housing  problem  in  Chicago,  it  is  at  once 
evident  that  we  are  not  in  the  deplorable  condition  of  New  York, 
nor  yet  perhaps  in  the  happy  condition  of  Philadelphia.  Until  a 
year  and  a  half  ago,  we  thought  that  all  our  problems  in  connection 
with  the  housing  question  were  in  the  future.  We  have  a  way  in 
Chicago  of  shoving  disagreeable  problems  into  the  future,  and  say- 
ing that  we  will  take  care  of  them  by  and  by,  when  our  resources  are 
more  adequate,  when  we  have  developed  a  little  more  civic 
consciousness.  An  association  of  people,  however,  called  the  City 
Homes  Association,  Lome  eighteen  months  ago,  made  a  very  care- 
ful investigation  of  such  tenement  districts  as  we  have  and  their 
report  was  startling,  even  to  those  of  us  who  knew  something  of  the 
conditions  by  daily  seeing  them. 

The  time  at  the  disposal  of  the  committee  was  only  six  months, 
and  Chicago  is  very  large  as  to  area.  We  have  187  square  miles 
under  city  management,  and  the  tenement  houses,  certainly  accord- 
ing to  the  legal  definition  given  by  Mr.  De  Forest,  are  scattered 
more  or  less  through  that  very  large  region.  It  seemed,  therefore, 
better  to  take  three  districts,  limiting  carefully  the  area  of  the 
districts,  and  to  make  as  careful  a  study  as  possible  of  each. 
The  largest  one,  in  two  of  the  river  wards  of  Chicago,  was 
mainly  occupied  by  Italian  immigrants  and  Russian  Jews.  The 
second  in  size  was  the  Polish  district  northeast  of  the  business 
quarter  of  the  city,  and  the  third  in  size  the  Bohemian  district 
extended  south  from  the  centre.  We  discovered  several  things 
which  were  very  surprising,  among  them  that  many  of  the  houses 
were  owned  or  partially  owned  by  the  people  living  in  them.  The 
thrifty  Bohemian  put  his  savings  into  a  house,  perhaps  build- 
ing at  first  a  house  on  the  front  of  his  lot,  living  in  a  few  rooms, 
and  so  saving  rent  until  he  had  enough  money  to  build  a  rear  tene- 
ment, in  the  end  covering  up  his  lot  as  much  as  possible  and  renting 
it  all  out.  The  Italians  to  a  somewhat  lesser  extent  did  the  same 
thing,  and  the  Poles  also,  so  that  one  could  not  talk  of  the  effect  of 

(99) 


lOO  The  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 

tenement  house  regulation  upon  the  landlord  in  contradistinction 
to  the  effect  upon  the  tenant,  for  it  is  very  largely  the  neighbors 
of  the  tenants  themselves  who  are  the  landlords,  and  the  tenant  and 
landlord  are  represented  by  the  same  type  of  person.  Their  inter- 
ests are  identical,  not  in  the  larger  sense,  but  in  the  immediate 
sense,  and  they  stand  together  either  in  demanding  or  opposing 
certain  regulations.  The  situation  is  quite  unlike  that  obtaining 
in  the  cities  where  the  landlord  lives  in  some  other  part  of  the  town, 
and  where  tenement  legislation  affects  only  his  property  interests 
and  not  his  human  interests. 

We  also  were  very  much  surprised  at  the  density  in  certain 
quarters  which  this  investigation  disclosed.  If  the  average  tene- 
ment house  density  of  the  three  districts  investigated  were  spread 
throughout  the  city,  we  could  house  within  our  borders  23,000,000 
people.  We  discovered  one-seventh  of  an  acre  which  was  occupied 
to  the  ratio  of  900  people  to  the  acre,  and  if  that  density  were 
applied  to  our  borders  we  could  house,  not  very  comfortably  to  be 
sure,  all  the  people  of  the  Western  Hemisphere.  This  seemed  to 
us  sufficiently  alarming  in  a  cit}-  in  which  it  was  said  that  the 
matter  of  density  was  something  concerning  only  the  future.  The 
average  tenancy  in  the  houses  throughout  these  three  districts 
was  only  three  families  to  a  house.  This  average  means  that  in 
many  cases  there  is  no  real  tenement,  but  a  single  house.  Again, 
many  of  these  single  houses  were  very  small,  sometimes  containing 
but  two  or  three  rooms,  and  the  average  number  of  rooms  to  an 
apartment  was  3  1 16-1000.  Although  many  houses  were  small 
and  the  tenements  for  each  house  again  small,  in  certain  quarters 
the  density  within  the  houses  was  very  great  and  the  conditions 
bad.  We  also  found  in  these  three  areas  almost  a  hundred  full- 
fledged  double-deckers,  and  a  great  mam^  more  that  only  escaped 
being  double-deckers  through  a  mere  technicality  in  the  definition 
that  had  been  settled  upon.  These  double-deckers  are  growing  and, 
unless  we  have  a  more  vigorous  enforcement  of  tenement  house 
regulations  in  Chicago,  threaten  to  become  very  common  there. 

In  both  the  building  department  and  in  the  health  department 
of  the  city,  a  great  deal  is  left  to  the  discretion  of  the  inspector. 
Of  course,  in  the  city  where  the  landlord  not  only  owns  his  house  but 
also  lives  in  it  and  at  least  knows  which  way  his  tenants  vote,  this 
matter  of  discretionary  power  becomes  an  important  one.  It  is 
very  hard  for  an  official  to  stand  out  against  a  certain  amount  of 


TJic  Housing-  Prod/ cm  in    Chicago  loi 

political  pressure,  and  the  consequence  is,  that  wliile  there  are  laws 
fairly  good  on  books,  this  large  discretion  left  to  the  enforcing 
officers  has  made  many  of  them  of  little  account.  This  is  especially 
true  in  regard  to  the  yard  spaces,  which  are  set  between  the  front 
and  rear  tenements,  the  size  of  the  shafts,  and  other  special  regula- 
tions. The  City  Homes  Association  is  trying  at  present  to  secure 
a  better  code  of  tenement  house  legislation,  to  restrict  the  discre- 
tionary power  and  thus  to  limit  the  very  casual  and  varying 
judgment  of  the  enforcing  official,  and  to  give  some  sturdy' stand- 
ard in  law  observances. 

In  the  matter  of  rents,  Chicago  is  in  rather  a  curious  state. 
The  property  in  the  river  wards,  in  which  many  of  these  houses  are 
situated,  has  been  held  for  a  long  time  by  its  owners  upon  the 
theory  that  finally  factories  and  shipping  interests  were  going  to 
occupy  the  land.  The  consequence  is,  that  the  little  houses  which 
were  built  very  soon  after  the  fire  have  been  allowed  to  remain, 
without  very  much  repair  and  without  very  much  change, 
and  in  many  cases  have  become  so  wretched  that  only  a  low 
rental  can  be  asked  for  them.  The  men  who  own  them,  con- 
tent themselves  with  getting  out  of  the  houses  about  enough 
to  pay  taxes  and  to  keep  up  a  minimum  amount  of  repairs  So 
that  the  rent  of  certain  houses  in  the  river  districts  is  low.  Per- 
haps this  is  not  low  for  Philadelphia,  although  I  am  sure  it  will 
sound  low  for  New  York.  The  average  rent  paid  by  an  Italian 
family  for  an  apartment  is  $4.92  a  month,  or  $1.78  per  room  a 
month;  the  average  rent  paid  by  a  Bohemian  family  for  an  apart- 
ment is  $5.93  a  month,  or  $1.64  a  room;  by  a  Polish  family  $5.66 
for  an  apartment,  and  $1.40  for  a  room;  by  a  Jewish  family  $8.28; 
the  average  rent  rising  to  $2.12  a  room.  AVhenever  the  question 
of  modern  tenements  comes  up  in  Chicago,  and  the  cost  is  carefully 
gone  into,  it  is  found  very  difficult  to  furnish  apartments  in  good, 
satisfactorily  well-built  houses  at  so  low  a  rental,  and  yet  once  this 
rental  has  been  established,  it  is  found  on  the  other  hand  very 
difficult  to  ask  much  more  than  the  current  rate.  By  a  strict 
enforcement  of  law  many  of  these  houses  should  be  demolished. 
That  would  rid  the  city  of  a  number  of  unsanitary  houses  and 
bring  conditions  to  a  more  normal  situation. 

What  Mr.  De  Forest  says  about  the  twenty-five  foot  lot,  I 
should  very  much  like  to  corroborate.  It  is  very  difficult  to  erect 
a  convenient  house  on  a  lot  25  feet  wide  and  120  feet  deep.     This 


I02  The  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 

unfortunate  division  of  property  was  made  in  the  first  instance, 
doubtless,  to  enable  as  many  men  as  possible  to  own  their  own 
separate  houses.  For  a  long  time  we  have  made  a  sort  of  fetich  of 
the  house,  and  have  come  to  believe  that  a  man  has  a  sense  of  being 
at  home  only  when  he  is  within  four  walls  standing  alone  upon  one 
piece  of  ground.  In  reality  the  idea  of  a  home  reaches  back  so 
much  further  than  the  four  walls,  and  is  so  much  more  deeply 
implanted  in  the  human  breast  than  the  ownership  of  land  that  we 
do  not  need  to  fear  that  a  new  type  of  house  will  destroy  it.  But 
we  are  timid  and  would  rather  be  uncomfortable  in  a  little  house 
than  to  start  out  in  some  reasonable  way  in  building  apartments. 
If  one  has  a  house  i2>^  feet  wide  and  24  feet  deep  and  24  feet  high, 
one  has  not  a  very  comfortable  arrangement.  It  is  not  even 
rationally  divided,  but  b}^  a  purely  imitative  method ;  in  every  house 
you  enter  you  will  find  the  little  hall,  the  little  stairs,  and  all  the 
other  things  that  presuppose  plenty  of  space.  If  that  same  strip 
of  twelve  feet  had  been  added  to  the  other  strips  in  the  block  and 
the  whole  treated  in  some  reasonable  manner,  we  could  comfortably 
house  the  same  number  of  people  in  a  sort  of  glorified  tenement 
house  or  apartment  house ;  each  family  might  have  at  least  one  large 
living-room  where  the  members  could  get  together  in  comfort  and 
have  a  much  better  chance  for  conserving  family  life  than  they  have 
in  the  little  square  box.  Some  of  us  still  believe  that  a  workingman 
has  a  sense  of  ownership  only  when  he  puts  his  savings  into  a  piece 
of  ground  or  the  house  in  which  he  lives.  To  tie  a  workman  down  to 
a  given  piece  of  ground  is  often  of  questionable  good.  A  man  may 
put  all  his  savings  into  a  house  on  the  North  Side  of  Chicago,  for 
instance,  and  before  it  is  paid  for, find  himself  out  of  work;  his  next 
work  may  be  fifteen  miles  from  that  place,  in  South  Chicago.  If 
his  house  is  partially  paid  for,  it  is  very  difficult  to  get  rid  of  it,  and 
it  is  also  difficult  and  expensive  to  travel  fifteen  miles  twice  a  day. 
If  his  propert}^  had  been  in  some  other  form,  let  us  say  stocks  or 
bonds,  it  would  have  allowed  him  much  more  mobility  in  regard  to 
his  labor,  and  he  would  have  a  better  cbance  of  adjusting  himself 
to  the  changing  conditions  of  his  trade. 

A  Housing  Conference,  it  seems  to  me,  ought  first  of  all  to  look 
at  industrial  conditions  as  they  confront  the  workingman  of  to-day, 
not  as  conditions  existed  fifteen  or  twenty  years  ago,  nor  as  they 
existed  for  our  fathers.  A  conference  should  not  consider  the 
workingman   of   its   imagination,  nor  yet  the  workingman   as   he 


TJic  Hciising  Problem  in   Chicago  103 

ought  to  be,  but   the  workingman   of  to-day  as   he   finds   himself, 
with  his  family,  with  his  savings,  with  his  difficulty  of   keeping  a 
place  very  long,  due  to  the  sudden  changes  in  the  methods  of   his 
trade.    His  employer  is  obliged  to  make  constant  changes  and  adap- 
tations in  his  factory,  but  his  landlord  is  afraid  to  try  changes  in  his 
house.      We  hold  a  certain  fiction  in  our  minds  of  what  home  is 
and  what  it  ought  to  be,  forgetting  how  far  back  it  goes,  that  it 
can  survive  all  sorts  of  changes  and  adaptations,  that  the  one  thing 
which  will  kill  it  is  that  which  kills  every  living  thing,  i.  c,  lack  of 
adaptation  to  its  environment ;  if  it  fails  to  adapt  itself  to  the  situa- 
tion as  it  really  exists,  it  is  for  the  first  time  endangered.     If  the 
community,  as  a  whole,  gives  its  mind  to  it,  as  the  Philadelphia 
community  seems  to  be  doing,  and  knows  conditions  accurately 
and  thoroughly,  I  am  sure  we  are  going  to  see  very  marked  changes 
in  the  housing  of  the  poorer  people  of  the  modern  cities,  and  we 
shall  no  more  cling  to  the  single  house  than  to  the  country  store. 
The  time  may  come,  when,  if  in  any  city,  the  death-rate  rises  above 
the  normal,  that  the  body  of  public-spirited  citizens  shall  at  once 
feel  forced  to  do  something  about  it,  that  they  shall  be  filled  with  a 
sense  of  disgrace  and  feel  that  a  disaster  has  occurred  in  their  city. 
At   the   present  moment  the   death-rate  is  constantly   above  the 
normal,  in  certain  quarters  of  our  cities;  we  allow  it  to  be  high  year 
after  year,  knowing  that  it  is  excessive.     This  apathy  can  only  be 
explained  on  one  of  two  grounds,  either  that  we  do  not  know  the 
housing  conditions  which  exist,  or  that  we  are  so  selfish  as  to  have 
no  sense  of  responsibility  in  regard  to  them. 


Discussion  of  the  Papers  Read  by  Miss  Addams  and  Mr. 

De  Forest: 
"Q.   Is  the  discretion,  which  Miss  Addams  says  is  abused  in 
Chicago  to  such  an  extent,  exercised  with  regard  to  the  legal  court 
area  which  should  be  left  unoccupied  by  the  building? 

"A.  (Miss  Addams),  I  would  reply,  yes,  that  buildings  are 
permitted  to  go  up  with  lesser  court  areas  than  provided  by  law. 
The  matter  is  so  largely  in  the  hands  of  the  office  giving  the  per- 
mit that  almost  every  provision  is  changed.  I  think  we  found 
in  this  investigation  houses  which  illustrated  the  encroachment 
upon  and  the  breaking  of  every  single  ordinance  found  upon  the 
statute  books,  in  regard  to  the  shaft  area  as  well  as  other  provisions. 


I04  TJic  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 

"Q.  I  cannot  see  why  the  figures  mentioned  should  be  unduly 
low  for  the  rent  per  room  per  month,  or  should  be  too  low  to  permit 
a  reasonable  profit  to  the  owner  of  propert3^  I  have  rented  a  six- 
room  house  in  Washington,  around  the  corner  from  one  of  the  best 
residence  districts,  for  $3.50  per  room  per  month;  furnished  rooms 
in  New  York,  near  Columbia  University,  for  $2.00  a  week,  and 
downtown,  near  the  business  part  of  the  city,  for  $1.50,  furnished, 
with  attendance.  I  wonder  if  Mr.  De  Forest  can  tell  us  what,  under 
modern  conditions  in  New  York  City,  for  example,  should  be  a  fair 
rent  which  would  enable  a  landlord  to  get  a  fair  profit  on  the  in- 
vestment per  room  per  month. 

"A.  (Mr  De  Forest),  In  New  York,  rents  are,  I  think,  on  a 
business  basis.  In  other  words,  I  do  think  the  landlords  expect  to 
receive,  and  do  receive  from  their  tenements  a  normal  income,  and 
in  many  instances  more  than  a  normal  income.  The  modern 
tenements  which  are  being  put  up  by  the  City  and  Suburban 
Homes  Company  of  New  York,  which  are  now  being  increased  in 
number,  do  produce  a  fair  income,  representing  not  less  than  4 
per  cent  on  the  money  invested.  I  refer  to  the  buildings  con- 
structed at  the  present  time  under  the  modern  requirements  of  the 
state  law. 

"Q.  The  Washington  Sanitary  Improvement  Company  paid  5 
per  cent  from  the  very  beginning  and  rents  its  flats  for  about  $3.00 
per  room  per  month.     The  buildings  are  one  to  three  stories  high. 

"A.  Land  is  considerably  higher  in  Washington.  This  land 
is  not  less  than  $150,  and  usually  $200  a  foot.  The  price  quoted 
lowest  was  $1.78  per  room  per  month,  whereas  your  price  was 
$2.00  a  week,  for  New  York;  $3.00  and  $3.50  per  month  for 
Washington. 

"  Q.  We  have  heard  this  question  from  the  standpoint  of  Chi- 
cago, New  York  and  Philadelphia,  but  the  clientele  of  this  associa- 
tion, as  I  understand  it,  covers  the  entire  country,  and  I  should 
like  to  ask  Mr.  De  Forest  whether  it  is  not  true  that  the  investiga- 
tion made  by  the  Tenement  House  Commission  of  New  York  dis- 
closed the  fact  that  in  virtually  every  manufacturing  city  of  the 
country  there  is  to-day  distinctly  a  housing  problem  for  the  poor  and 
that  definite  constructive  work  needs  to  be  done  to  remedy  the  evils. 

"A.  The  investigation  made  by  the  Tenement  House  Com- 
mission which  covered  all  the  large  cities,  and  some  of  the  smaller 
ones  of  the  country,  includes  statistics  from  twenty  selected  cities. 


The  Housing  Problem  in   Chicago  105 

It  is  true  that  the  tenement  house  problem  presents  itself  in  a  much 
less  degree  in  some  places  than  in  others ;  it  does  so  to  a  much  less 
extent  in  Philadelphia.  In  other  large  cities  of  the  country  the 
housing  problem  exists  to  a  large  extent,  and  so  much  so  in  some 
of  the  smaller  cities  that  last  winter  the  cities  of  the  second  class  in 
New  York  State — Syracuse,  Utica,  Albany  and  Rochester — ^took  up 
the  problem  of  regulation  in  these  cities.  Jersey  City,  which  is 
directly  opposite  New  York,  and  which  is  a  comparatively  srnall 
city,  has  some  of  the  worst  housing  conditions  in  the  whole  country. 

"  Q.  About  how  large  a  proportion  of  the  population  is  affected 
by  the  housing  problem  in  New  York  ? 

"A.  The  total  population  of  New  York  is  about  3,400,000. 
Out  of  that  population  upwards  of  2,200,000  live  in  tenement 
houses,  as  legally  defined,  which  includes  apartment  houses. 
The  proportion  in  Brooklyn  is  quite  as  large  as  in  New  York, 
although  there  is  a  smaller  number  of  families  per  house. 

"Q.  What  is  a  double-decker? 

"A.  (Miss  Addams),  The  double-decker  was  originally,  of 
course,  a  house,  which  grew  from  the  fact  that  there  was  a  front 
tenement  and  a  rear  tenenient,  and  that  later  the  two  were  joined 
into  one  house. 

"Q.  I  would  like  to  ask  Miss  Addams  as  to  Chicago  and  Mr. 
De  Forest  as  to  Brooklyn,  whether  any  notice  has  been  taken  o£ 
the  question  as  to  the  best  pavement  for  the  poor  sections  of  the 
city,  that  is,  whether  asphalt  for  the  lanes  and  alleys  is  not,  as  a. 
rule,  cleaner  in  appearance  and  in  other  ways,  than  other  kinds  of 
paving,  as  cobblestone,  for  instance. 

"A.  (Miss  Addams),  I  will  ask  Mr.  De  Forest  to  answer  that. 
Paving  is  a  weak  point  in  Chicago. 

"A.  (Mr.  De  Forest),  Perhaps  I  ought  to  say  that  I  am  glad  to 
find  some  point  on  which  New  York  has  something  to  say.  j\Iost 
of  our  congested  tenement  districts  in  New  York,  largely  on  the 
East  Side,  have  been  paved  with  asphalt.  This  is  regarded  as  a 
matter  of  grave  importance,  and  was  one  of  the  subjects  consid- 
ered by  the  Tenement  House  Commission;  that  in  some  districts 
there  should  be  asphalt  pavements,  because  the  families  almost 
live  in  the  streets  in  summer  and  the  children  all  play  there,  was 
one  consideration,  and  keeping  the  streets  clean  was  another  of 
great  importance. 

"Q.   Do  you  think  that  the  facilitation  of  the  workingman 


io6  TJie  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 

in  change  of  residence,  either  within  metropoHtan  borders,  or  from 
one  city  to  another,  or  from  one  state  to  another,  is  a  good  thing 
in  contemplation  of  his  privileges  and  duties  as  an  American 
citizen  ? 

"A.  I  think  that  in  industry,  as  it  is  now  organized,  with 
the  sudden  changes  and  fluctuations  of  skill,  if  the  workman  is 
deprived  of  the  power  to  sell  his  labor,  it  is  very  bad  for  him. 
Then  I  think  the  adaptable  person  is  a  better  American  citizen 
than  a  person  who  is  planted  too  hard. 

"Q.  Are  you  not,  therefore,  regarding  only  the  rights  and  the 
good  that  may  be  done  to  the  individual,  eliminating  altogether 
his  obligations  as  a  citizen  ? 

"A.  What  I  wanted  to  say  was  this,  that  I  think  we  have  a 
way  of  relegating  all  the  old-fashioned  virtues  to  workingmen  and 
reserving  to  ourselves  the  most  interesting  and  more  adaptable 
virtues.  We  say  to  our  workmen,  do  not  drink,  be  thrifty  and  in- 
dustrious. These  are  good  but  negative.  We  reserve  to  ourselves 
the  power  of  developing  an  interesting  life,  and  all  the  rest  of  it. 
On  general  principles,  if  a  man  can  stay  in  one  place  and  own  his 
house,  of  course  it  is  better  for  him  both  from  a  financial  and  social 
point  of  view;  but  there  are  exceptions,  and  we  all  know  that  the 
present  industrial  conditions  imply  constant  change  both  in 
methods  and  place  of  manufacture,  that  if  we  really  understood 
the  workingman's  needs  and  were  trying  to  serve  him,  we  would 
evolve  some  such  plan  as  has  been  evolved  in  Belgium.  A  man 
there  puts  his  savings  into  the  Government  Savings  Bank,  which 
has  all  the  features  of  a  building  and  loan  association.  As  I 
understand  it,  he  may  make  partial  payments  upon  a  house  in 
Brussels,  but  if  his  work  takes  him  away  froin  that  city  to  another 
within  the  kingdom — ^let  us  say  Ghent — ^lie  may  transfer  his  pay- 
ments to  a  house  in  Ghent.  On  the  other  hand  he  may  remain 
in  Brussels,  complete  his  payments  until  he  owns  his  house  or 
withdraw  his  stock  in  his  own  house,  after  allowing  for  proper 
depreciation,  and  hold  his  savings  in  simple  bank  stock.  The 
entire  arrangement  is  flexible  and  adaptable,  and  transfers  the 
sense  of  ownership  from  the  simple  ownership  of  land  and  house, 
to  the  more  complex  one  of  stock. 

"Q.  Regarding  gardens,  playgrounds  and  gymnasiums,  which, 
in  some  sections  of  Philadelphia — namely,  the  College  Settlement — 
have  been  located  on  the  tops  of  buildings  for  the  benefit  of  children, 
has  that  been  done  in  New  York  and  Chicago,  and  with  what  success? 


TJie  Housing  Problem  in   Chicago  107 

"A.  I  should  say,  yes,  so  far  as  the  movement  has  gone,' 
that  is  with  regard  to  open  playgrounds,  not  speaking  of  roof 
gardens,  and  with  regard  to  open  parks.  The  small  park  move- 
ment has  undoubtedly  done  a  great  deal  of  good,  and  the  children's 
playground,  so  far  as  it  has  gone.  It  has  not  gone  to  the  extent  that 
its  friends  desire.  So  far  as  roof  gardens  are  concerned,  that  is, 
the  adoption  of  roofs  for  recreation,  that  has  not  been  done  so  far 
as  I  know.  It  has  been  thought  of  and  talked  of,  but  never 
carried  out." 


Certain  Aspects  of  the  Housing  Problem  in 
Pliiladelphia 


Report  Prepared  by  the  Octavia  Hill  Association 


(109) 


CERTAIN    ASPECTS    OF    THE     HOUSING    PROBLEM    IN 
PHILADELPHIA 


Report  Prepared  by  the  Octavia  Hill  Association 


The  work  of  the  Octavia  Hill  Association  has  been  one  of 
detailed  management  of  the  houses  of  the  poor  and  not  of  investi- 
gation, but  it  cannot  let  this  opportunity  pass  without  describing 
some  of  the  conditions  known  to  it.  No  comprehensive  report  of 
housing  conditions  in  Philadelphia  has  ever  been  made.  The 
Seventh  Special  Report  of  the  Commissioner  of  Labor  in  1894  on 
the  Slums  of  Great  Cities  has  interesting  data  on  living  conditions 
at  that  time  in  certain  sections  of  the  slum  districts,  while  "The 
Philadelphia  Negro,"  a  social  study,  by  W.  E.  Burghardt  Dubois, 
published  by  the  University  of  Pennsylvania  in  1899,  throws  a 
vivid  light  on  the  problem  in  its  relation  to  the  colored  population 
of  the  Seventh  Ward.  We  believe  that  the  time  has  come  for 
wider  consideration  of  this  important  subject.  Our  purpose  in 
this  paper  is  to  urge  strongly  the  importance,  if  not  the  necessity, 
of  a  thorough  investigation  and  that  one  may  be  undertaken  in 
the  near  future  before  our  situation  becomes  more  serious. 

Philadelphia  had  in  1900  a  population  of  1,293,697  persons, 
covering  an  area  of  almost  130  square  miles,  with  an  average  den- 
sity of  about  fifteen  persons  to  an  acre.  Of  its  258,690  dwelling- 
houses  more  than  one-half  are  two-story  dwellings,  and  its  average 
number  of  persons  to  a  dwelling  is  4.91.  These  facts  show  that 
our  problems  differ  radically  from  those  of  New  York  and  Chicago 
and  that  it  is  the  house  built  for  occupation  by  a  single  family  and 
not  the  tenement,  which  is  the  important  feature  for  us  to  con- 
sider. The  excellent  system  which  has  made  Philadelphia  famous 
and  has  given  it  a  larger  proportion  of  separate  dwellings  for  the 
working  classes  than  any  city  of  an  equal  population,  has  blinded 
our  eyes  too  long  to  the  evils  which  have  been  growing  up  about  us. 
Until  within  a  few  years  the  building  law  was  practically  a  dead 
letter,  and  no  check  was  placed  on  the  avarice  of  the  landlord  in  his 
desire  to  gain  the  utmost  possible  return  from  his  ground  space. 
Even  to-day  we  have  no  laws  for  the  enforcement  of  underdrainage 
and  our  municipal  departments  are  unable  with  their  small  force 

(III) 


1 1 2  TJic  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 

of  inspectors  to  cope  with  the  conditions  we  are  facing.  These  facts 
have  given  us  problems  which  though  the  way  to  their  solution  may 
be  plain,  yet  deniand  serious  consideration. 

Philadelphia  can  be  justly  proud  of  the  way  in  which  the  needs 
of  the  regularly  employed  wage-earner  have  been  met  by  the  small 
house.  In  the  newer  and  outlying  parts  of  the  city  this  house  is 
found  in  its  best  development.  There  are  rows  upon  rows,  streets 
upon  streets  of  attractive  four  and  six  roomed  houses  with  an  in- 
creasing number  of  modern  conveniences.  Sanitary  plumbing, 
bath,  range,  furnace,  gas,  a  cemented  cellar,  a  porch  and  a  small 
yard  may  be  had  for  from  $15.00  to  $20.00  a  month.  Three  thou- 
sand six  hundred  and  twenty-five  two-story  houses  were  in  1901 
added  to  the  already  large  number  of  these  and  the  Building  and 
Loan  Associations  bear  witness  to  the  continued  demand  and  the 
increase  of  popular  ownership. 

Nearer  to  the  centre  of  the  city  also,  and  in  the  great  mill  and 
factory  districts,  one  finds  still  the  individual  home,  but  here  the 
houses  are  older,  the  rows  seem  longer  and  more  unbroken  in  their 
monotonv  and  in  innumerable  courts  and  alleys  there  is  surface 
drainage.  Here,  also,  we  find  the  various  features  of  the  problem 
which  grows  more  difficult  in  the  older  parts  of  the  city  and  as  the 
social  scale  is  lowered.  In  prosperous  times,  each  small  house 
holds  one  family.  In  times  of  industrial  depression  the  house  built 
for  one  family  must  with  no  additional  conveniences,  no  better 
arrangements  for  privacv  and  comfort,  accommodate  two  or  more. 

For  the  purpose  of  this  report  we  have  considered  mainly  the 
district  in  the  southeastern  part  of  the  city  where  our  own  work 
centres.'  The  five  wards,  where  this  district  lies,  contain  about 
one-tenth  of  the  population  of  the  city  and  cover  about  one-eight- 
ieth of  the  area  or  one  and  three-fifths  square  miles.  The  average 
density  of  population  in  these  wards  is  123  persons  to  an  acre.  In 
the  Third  Ward  the  average  number  increases  to  209.  The  wards 
are  relatively  well  provided  with  park  area,  but  the  whole  amount 
used  for  this  purpose  is  only  16.88  acres  out  of  a  total  of  1030  acres, 
which  shows  the  crying  need  there  is  for  more  breathing  spaces  in 
these  congested  districts.  There  are  a  number  of  old  graveyards 
which  would  be  valuable  additions  to  the  park  area  if  they  were 
so  used.     The  total  number  of  inhabitants  in  the  five  wards  is 

1  The  five  wards  are  the  Second,  Third,  Fourth,  Fifth  and  Seventh.  One-half  of  the 
Seventh  extends  out  of  the  district  towards  the  west,  but  shows  many  of  the  same  character- 
istics. 


The  Housing  Problem  in  Philadelphia  113 

127,466.  Of  these,  50,733  are  foreign  born,  17,61 1  are  negroes.  It 
is  impossible  to  attempt  a  description  of  the  many  phases  of  life 
throughout  this  region.  The  large  numbers  of  foreigners  are 
grouped  together  according  to  nationality,  in  fairly  well-defined 
geographical  areas,  each  showing  many  characteristics  of  its  own 
national  life.  The  slum  districts  shift  their  centres  somewhat  in 
the  changing  of  populations,  but  are  seemingly  as  strongly  en- 
trenched as  ever  and  extend  over  increasingly  large  areas.  Archi- 
tecturally the  buildings  show  great  variety.  Quaint,  gabled  frame 
houses  often  in  the  most  dilapidated  condition,  modern  brick 
dwellings,  colonial  houses  of  fine  proportions,  and  tenements  are 
found  side  by  side  often  in  picturesque  proximity. 

The  size  of  the  block  in  Philadelphia  is  an  important  factor 
in  any  consideration  of  its  housing  conditions.  This  block  aver- 
ages about  400  feet  square.  By  the  purpose  of  the  founder  of  the 
city  it  was  intended  that  each  house  should  be  in  the  middle  of  the 
"breadth  of  his  ground,  so  as  to  give  place  to  gardens,  etc.,  such 
as  might  be  a  green  country  towne  which  might  never  be  burnt  and 
might  always  be  wholesome."  '  This  large  size  has  continued  to 
be  the  plan  of  the  city  and  has  lent  itself  readily  to  being  cut  up 
into  the  network  of  inner  courts  and  alleys  which  are  practically 
universal.  The  gardens,  however,  in  all  the  poorer  districts,  have 
totally  disappeared.  The  small  house  has  been  crowded  onto  the 
ground  formerly  allotted  to  them,  and  the  revenue  from  the  land 
has  been  increased  by  an  intensive  process,  which  while  not  build- 
ing into  the  air  has  covered  the  ground  with  large  numbers  of 
dwellings.  It  is  the  limited  height  of  the  buildings  that  is  the 
saving  factor.  If  the  houses  were  high  with  the  consequent  in- 
crease of  overcrowding  to  the  acre,  the  conditions  would  be  ex- 
treme. 

From  the  various  types  of  houses  known  to  us  we  have  chosen 
for  special  mention  three  of  those  which  show  most  clearly  the 
character  and  needs  of  this  district.  The  most  striking  of  these 
is  the  occasional  large  tenement.  In  the  early  nineties  the  great 
increase  of  immigration  suggested  the  building  of  tenements  as  a 
profitable  investment.  The  result  was  a  goodly  number  of  scat- 
tered houses,  built  under  the  law  governing  the  building  of  the 
ordinary  dwelling-house  and  showing  some  of  the  worst  phases  of 
tenement  house  construction.     Narrow  air-shafts,  lots  closely  built 

^  Watson's  Annals,  Vol.  I,  p.  43. 


114  '^^^^  Amtals  of  the  Amaican  Acadc^ny 

over,  insufficient  plumbing,  badly  ventilated  and  dark  rooms,  in- 
adequate fire-escapes,  would  if  multiplied  have  thrust  upon  us  a 
problem  of  a  very  serious  form.  These  houses  hold  from  sixteen 
to  fifty  families.  In  many  instances  the  yard  space  is  a  long  narrow- 
strip  on  which  all  the  rooms  are  dependent  for  air  and  light  except 
those  on  the  front  of  the  building.  When  the  adjoining  lot  is 
covered  in  the  same  way  the  result  is  a  narrow  well  in  which  sun- 
shine cannot  enter  and  through  which  there  is  no  circulation  of  air. 
In  one  case,  in  a  house  built  on  the  four  sides  of  its  ground,  sixty- 
four  rooms  open  on  such  a  well  which  is  seven  feet  six  inches  in 
width,  while  in  another  instance  a  copy  of  the  New  York  dumb- 
bell plan  is  found.  This  movement  was  fortunately  watched  and 
arrested  in  its  early  development.  Through  the  thoughtful  action 
of  Mr.  Hector  Mcintosh  and  with  the  co-pperation  of  a  number  of 
prominent  city  officials  and  others,  a  wise  law  was  framed  and 
accepted  by  the  Legislature.  The  evil  was  checked  and  the  bvtild- 
ing  of  large  and  badly  arranged  tenements  prevented. 

Under  this  act  of  May  7,  1895,  the  term  tenement  is  defined  as 
meaning  every  building  which  is,  or  is  to  be,  occupied  by  three  or 
more  families,  living  independently  of  each  other  and  doing  their 
cooking  on  the  premises.  The  act  provides  that  not  more  than  80 
per  cent  of  a  lot  can  be  built  on,  except  in  corner  properties,  that 
the  width  of  a  yard  shall  be  not  less  than  eight  feet,  that  every  room 
in  such  houses  shall  have  a  window  opening  upon  a  street  or  upon 
the  yard,  that  every  tenement  house  over  four  stories  high  shall 
be  fireproof,  throughout.  It  has  also  stringent  provisions  in  re- 
gard to  water  supply,  sanitation,  minimum  size  of  rooms,  halls, 
etc.  The  cost  of  building  is  thus  so  much  increased  as  to  be 
almost  prohibitive. 

In  1890  the  percentage  of  families  living  in  tenement  houses 
in  Philadelphia  was  1.44.  Whatever  the  increase  in  this  figure 
may  be  in  the  census  of  1900,'  it  remains  true  that  only  the  poorest 
live  in  one  and  two  rooms,  and  that  as  soon  as  a  higher  rent  can  be 
paid,  or  a  small  house  can  be  had  at  a  low  rent,  the  change  is  eagerly 
made.  The  management  of  all  large  tenements  is  very  difficult,  and 
manifest  evils  are  sure  to  follow  neglect  and  inefficiency  on  the 
part  of  the  owners.  Thus,  in  a  community  containing  so  large  a 
number  of  small  houses,  the  tide  was  turned  from  this  plan  of 

1  The  Second  Volume  of  the  Census  of    1900  is  not  yet  issued. 


TJic  Housing  Problem  in  Philadelphia  1 1 5 

housing  at  a  critical  moment,  the  results  of  which  are  of  far-reaching 
benefit. 

The  second  class  of  house  which  is  found  prominently  is  that 
built  for  one  family  of  the  better  class  and  now  converted  to  the 
use  of  three  or  more  families  of  the  very  poor.  In  the  history  of 
housing  in  other  cities,  these  houses  have  formed  one  step  in  the 
evolution  of  such  tenements  as  we  have  described.  Here,  they 
form  the  most  important  phase  of  our  tenement  house  problem. 
May  it  not  be  that  b}'-  wisely  adapting  them  to  the  needs  of  the 
very  poor  they  can  take  the  place  of  the  larger  tenements  and  give 
to  Philadelphia  the  proud  distinction  of  housing  these  classes  in 
small  buildings,  which  shall  avoid  the  evils  attendant  upon  the 
herding  of  many  families  together?  At  present,  there  are  large 
numbers  of  houses  of  thi2  class  in  the  older  parts  of  this  region  and 
a  total  failure  of  any  adaptation  of  the  old  arrangements  to  suit 
the  new  conditions.  The  houses  are  usually  well  built  and  the 
rooms  large  and  well  ventilated,  but  there  is  no  attempt  at  ade- 
quate or  sanitary  plumbing.  The  hydrant  in  the  yard  is  often  the 
only  water  supply  and  there  is  probably  but  one  closet,  also  in  the 
yard,  the  privy  well  of  which  may  be  shared  by  three  adjoining 
houses.  Little  attention  is  given  to  care  or  management.  The 
repairs  are  neglected,  the  stairways  are  dark,  the  halls  obstructed 
by  extra  furniture  and  rubbish.  In  many  cases  the  cellars  are  damp 
and  filthy  and  give  no  provision  for  storage.  The  yards  are  ob- 
structed, there  are  no  arrangements  for  drying  clothes. 

The  law  provides  that  when  buildings  are  altered  into  tene- 
ments certain  provisions  shall  be  enforced,  but  it  makes  no  mention 
of  the  need  for  this  alteration  in  houses  so  used  without  changes, 
nor  does  it  exact  any  such  changes.  The  landlord  of  the  district  is 
keenly  alive  to  the  fact  that  when  alterations  are  to  be  made,  an 
affidavit  that  the  house  is  to  be  used  by  only  two  families  will  pro- 
tect him  from  the  exactions  of  the  tenement  house  law.  A  special 
investigation  into  houses  of  this  class  would  surely  show  how  the 
law  could  be  amended  to  cover  their  defects  and  to  fit  them  at  a 
moderate  expenditure  and  under  good  regulation  to  meet  the  needs 
of  the  newly  arrived  immigrant  and  of  the  very  poor. 

This  type  of  houses  built  for  one  family  and  changed  into  tene- 
ments has  another  and  a  worse  form  when  it  is  used  for  what  is 
known  as  a  "furnished  room  house."  There  is  a  large,  and  it  is 
believed  a  steadily  increasing,  number  of  these  in  the  older  parts 


1 1 6  The  Annals  of  the  Auicrican  Academy 

of  the  city  and  where  conditions  have  greatly  deteriorated.  There 
are  no  data  on  which  to  estimate  their  number.  A  thorough  inquiry 
could  be  made  only  with  police  or  other  authority  behind  the 
workers.  These  houses  are  tenements  and  have  all  the  objection- 
able features  of  tenements  in  a  marked  degree,  besides  others  pe- 
culiar to  themselves.  These  features  are  intensified  by  the  char- 
acter of  the  tenants,  who  are  of  the  lowest  class.  Sometimes  the 
houses  are  used  for  immoral  purposes,  and  the  occupants  generally 
are  shiftless,  intemperate  and  slovenly.  Some  few  are  deserving 
families  where  the  breadwinner  is  out  of  work.  Their  conditions 
are  deplorable,  and  they  have  not  even  the  stimulus  to  decent  living 
that  comes  from  the  ownership  of  household  goods.  The  buildings 
are  generally  old,  and  ill-adapted  to  the  number  of  people  crowded 
in  them.  The  rooms  are  rented  by  the  week  at  prices  ranging  from 
$1.50  to  $2.50  per  room.  They  have  the  scantiest  possible  equipment 
of  old  and  dilapidated  furniture.  They  are  dirty  and  unventilated ; 
the  beds  and  bedding  indescribable.  Water  is  seldom  found  above 
the  ground  floor.  Bath-tubs  are  unknown  or  used  for  storage. 
In  most  cases  there  is  but  one  closet  in  the  yard  for  all  the  tenants 
of  the  house.  The  yards,  as  a  rule,  are  filth3^  There  is  no  appar- 
ent effort  at  cleanliness  or  supervision.  One  room  is  the  ordinary 
rule  for  one  family,  with  frequent  boarders  in  addition.  In  some 
cases  the  large  rooms  have  been  divided  by  flimsy  partitions,  and 
each  half  is  occupied  by  a  family.  The  primary  need  of  these 
houses  is  frequent  and  efficient  inspection.  This  is  more  urgent 
than  in  a  case  of  ordinary  tenements,  as  the  occupants  are  the 
lowest  and  the  poorest,  and  unable  or  unwilling  to  make  any  efforts 
in  their  own  behalf.  In  no  way  can  the  Health  and  Building  De- 
partment regulations  be  enforced,  nor  any  general  improvement 
in  the  condition  of  these  houses  be  effected,  except  by  a  system 
of  periodic  inspection,  followed  by  action  by  the  proper  city  de- 
partments. It  is  entirely  possible  that  a  thorough  investigation 
of  these  houses  made  under  adequate  authority  throughout  the 
city,  woi  Id  show  the  prevalence  of  conditions  warranting  a  system 
of  licensing — the  license  to  be  revoked  upon  failure  by  the  land- 
lord to  enforce  reasonable  regulations  as  to  cleanliness,  decency, 
overcrowding,  etc. — in  addition  to  the  present  laws  applying  to  all 
tenement  houses. 

The  third   class   of   houses   to  which  we  would   draw   special 
attention  is  that  of  the  rear  dwelling,  a  small  two  or  three-story 


The  Housing  Problem  in  Philadelphia  1 1 7 

house,  built  sometimes  singh'  and  sometimes  in  rows  of  from  two 
to  eight  or  ten  houses  on  the  rear  of  the  front  house.  This  plan  of 
building  has  been  characterized  as  the  horizontal  rather  than  the 
vertical  tenement.  The  entrance  to  the  row  is  by  a  narrow  passage- 
way from  the  street  or  court.  This  passage-way  is  also  frequently 
the  means  b}"  which  the  surface  drainage  is  carried  to  the  street  or 
to  an  open  sewer-connection  at  its  entrance.  The  space  in  front 
of  the  houses  is  the  only  yard.  Sometimes  this  space  widens  at  the 
end  of  the  entrance-way  and  there  is  a  double  row  of  dwellings 
facing  each  other  and  covering  the  rears  of  two  or  three  front  lots. 
Sometimes  again  the  open  space  forms  a  square  with  houses  on 
three  sides.  Thus  one  comes  unexpectedly  on  a  little  community 
whose  existence  one  has  not  imagined.  More  often,  however,  the 
narrow  passage-way  runs  the  whole  length  of  the  row  and  in  many 
cases  the  brick  wall  of  an  adjoining  lot  shuts  away  all  air  and  sun- 
shine and  makes  a  prison  of  the  little  court. 

In  a  careful  investigation  made  by  the  college  settlement  into 
the  sanitary  condition  of  one  block  in  its  immediate  neighborhood, 
this  type  of  house  was  strongly  illustrated.  Out  of  a  total  of  196 
houses  in  the  block,  over  90  were  rear  dwellings,  and  but  a  small 
proportion  of  these  was  underdrained.  The  building  of  rear  houses 
is  now  prohibited  by  law.  Such  an  investigation  as  we  ask  for 
would  show-  many  localities  where  some  houses  should  be  torn 
down  to  give  light  and  air  to  the  others,  and  other  cases  where  the 
courts  should  be  cut  through  or  entirely  demolished.  Where  the 
conditions  are  good,  however,  these  houses  meet  the  needs  of  the 
very  poor  and  offer  the  advantage  of  an  individual  house,  at  a 
low  rent,  even  though  it  involve  the  common  use  of  yard  space  and 
closet  and  water  conveniences. 

Enough  has  been  said  about  sanitation  to  show  the  great  need 
of  reform.  The  death  rate  is  not  the  only  gauge  of  the  sanitary 
condition  of  the  neighborhood.  It  is  shown  also  in  lowered  vital- 
ity and  poor  health  for  which  there  are  no  statistical  returns. 
The  prevalence  of  surface  drainage  in  Philadelphia  is  very  imper- 
fectly realized.  Of  its  1500  miles  of  streets,  according  to  a  Bulletin 
of  the  Department  of  Labor  in  1901,  there  were  in  that  year  419 
miles  that  were  unpaved,  and  613  miles  without  sewers,  leaving  a 
balance  of  at  least  193  miles  of  paved  streets  without  underdrain- 
age.  In  streets  where  drains  have  been  laid,  many  houses  have 
not  been  connected.     The  open  drains  still  run  through  the  great 


1 1 8  Tlie  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 

majority  of  alleys,  where  the  decaying  matter  stands  in  the  gutters 
and  when  dried  is  scattered  about  by  the  wind.  Neglected  and 
foul  privy  wells  are  frequently  found.  The  people  are  eager  to 
tell  their  grievances  and  many  are  submitting  patiently  to  intol- 
erable conditions. 

The  most  essential  step  now  to  be  taken  by  the  city  is  sys- 
tematic and  frequent  inspection  of  sanitary  conditions.  If  it  is 
not  possible  to  enforce  underdrainage  at  once,  such  inspection 
would  cause  it  to  be  enforced  where  flagrant  nuisances  exist,  and 
the  moral  influence  of  an  official  would  stimulate  to  better  stand- 
ards. The  Board  of  Health  can  make  but  rare  inspections  on  its 
own  initiative  and  its  small  force  of  twenty  inspectors  of  nuisances 
is  unable  to  respond  promptly  to  the  numbers  of  complaints  made 
to  it.  If  this  force  and  the  force  of  the  Bureau  of  Building  Inspec- 
tion were  largely  increased,  with  added  powers,  the  evils  of 
insanitary  dwellings  and  of  the  evasion  of  the  building  law  could 
be  readily  dealt  with.  There  is  no  large  city  where  these  prob- 
lems could  be  more  easily  solved. 

To  prove  more  fully  the  need  of  such  measures  we  hope  that 
an  investigation  full  enough  to  give  a  comprehensive  knowledge  of 
existing  conditions  may  soon  be  made.  The  results  of  such  an 
investigation  would  not  only  promote  these  reforms,  but  would 
suggest  other  means  of  undoing  the  evils  which  have  arisen  from 
our  long  neglect  and  of  safeguarding  the  future. 

We  have  spoken  thus  far  of  the  need  of  reform  through  legis- 
lation and  the  strengthening  of  the  municipal  departments  whose 
work  is  so  important  in  these  districts.  Such  measures  are  neces- 
sary for  all  classes;  it  is  for  the  very  poor  that  something  more  is 
needed.  The  principle  cannot  be  too  strongly  set  forth  that  it  is 
the  management  of  the  dwellings  of  the  poor,  whether  they  live  in 
courts  or  tenements,  that  is  to  be  the  means  of  securing  to  them 
health  and  comfort,  of  giving  them,  in  reality,  homes.  Miss  Octavia 
Hill  began  in  London  in  1864  the  work  that  was  destined  from  the 
strength  of  its  underlying  principles  to  become  a  significant  factor 
in  dealing  on  these  lines  with  the  housing  problem  in  Europe  and 
also  to  some  extent  in  this  country. 

While  considering  that  the  "spiritual  elevation  of  a  large  class 
depends  to  a  considerable  extent  on  sanitary  reform,"  '  Miss  Hill 
believes  also  that  sanitary  improvement  itself  depends  upon  the 

1  "  Homes  of  the  London  Poor,"  by  Octavia  Hill. 


The  Housing  Problem  in  Philadelphia  119 

educational  work  among  grown-up  people  and  that  this  work  must 
be  effected  by  individual  influence.  It  is  this  influence  in  the 
hands  of  the  landlord  or  his  representative  that  is  so  great  a  power, 
and  can  be  used  either  for  weal  or  woe. 

Miss  Hill's  plan  is  not  to  tear  down  old  buildings  and  to  begin 
anew,  but  to  improve  existing  conditions  gradually  as  the  tenants 
are  trained  gradually  to  appreciate  and  desire  better  things.  This 
work  is  done  with  the  assistance  of  large  numbers  of  volunteer  rent 
collectors,  each  one  of  whom  is  specially  trained  and  is  given  a 
small  group  of  tenants  to  care  for.  We  quote  from  Miss  Hill  as 
to  the  duties  of  the  collectors:  "We  have  tried  so  far  as  possible 
to  enlist  ladies  who  would  have  an  idea  of  how,  by  diligent  atten- 
tion to  all  business  which  devolves  on  a  landlord,  by  wise  rule  with 
regard  to  all  duties  which  a  tenant  should  fulfill,  by  sympathetic 
and  just  decisions  with  a  view  to  the  common  good,  a  high  stand- 
ard of  management  could  be  obtained.  Repairs  promptly  and 
efficiently  attended  to,  references  carefully  taken  up,  cleaning 
sedulously  supervised,  overcrowding  put  an  end  to,  the  blessing  of 
ready  money  payment  enforced,  accounts  strictly  kept  and,  above 
all,  tenants  so  sorted  as  to  be  helpful  to  one  another."  The  relation 
thus  established  on  a  basis  of  mutual  obligation  is  one  of  real  and 
often  enduring  helpfulness,  and  the  opportunities  for  service  are 
almost  unlimited. 

Miss  Hill's  work  has  from  the  first  been  on  a  sound  business 
basis  and  has  given  excellent  financial  returns.  She  has  never 
formed  any  association  of  the  owners  of  the  many  properties  under 
her  care,  or  of  the  workers  who  manage  them.  She  has  felt  that 
the  work  is  freer,  and  more  real  when  thus  untrammeled. 

Many  cities  have  followed  the  example  of  London  in  this  plan 
of  work.  That  of  the  Edinburgh  Social  Union  is  of  unusual  inter- 
est. It  believes,  as  we  must  all  believe,  that  the  "immediate  ques- 
tion to  face  is  how  to  make  the  best  of  present  conditions,  how  to 
raise  the  standard  of  comfort  without  waiting  for  legislative 
changes."  Its  reports  tell  a  story  of  successful  growth  which  is 
full  of  valuable  and  suggestive  experience. 

In  Philadelphia  the  need  for  the  extension  of  such  work  groves 
to  us  stronger  and  more  insistent  as  we  learn  more  of  the  neglected 
places  of  our  city,  of  the  many  streets  and  courts  which  need  such 
influences  as  these.  We  believe  that  this  work  must  grow  and  that 
there  wdll  come  also  a  more  realizing  sense  of  the  responsibility  of 


I20  TJic  Amials  of  the  American  Academy 

the  community  for  the  welfare  of  its  people.  In  the  wise  control 
of  new  building,  and  of  the  apartment  houses  which  may  be  tene- 
ments in  the  future,  by  planning  for  wide  streets  and  many  open 
spaces,  by  the  awakening  of  higher  civic  standards  we  shall  come 
also  to  a  higher  social  order.  "Victory  over  evil  at  its  source  and 
not  in  its  consequences ;  reforms  which  shall  regard  the  welfare  of 
future  generations,  who  are  the  greatest  number."  ' 

Editor's  Note. — The  Octavia  Hill  Association  is  a  stock  company  or- 
ganized to  improve  living  conditions  in  such  neighborhoods  as  those  described 
in  the  foregoing  paper,  on  lines  siinilar  to  the  work  of  Miss  Octavia  Hill  in 
London.  Its  aim  is  to  improve  old  houses  and  small  properties  rather  than 
to  build  new  ones.  It  uses  women  rent  collectors,  both  paid  workers  and 
volunteers.  The  Association  was  organized  in  1896  and  has  a  capital  stock 
of  $50,000;  it  has  paid  yearly  dividends  of  4  percent  and  4J^  per  cent. 
Its  capital  is  invested  in  houses  which  when  purchased  were  typical  of  the 
classes  above  described.  These  houses  have  been  properly  altered  and 
repaired  and  demonstrate'  the  possibility  of  overcoming  such  conditions  and 
yet  receiving  a  fair  financial  return.  The  Association  assumes  also  the 
management  of  property  for  other  owners.  It  has  seventy-seven  houses 
now  under  its  care,  sixty-five  of  which  are  small  hovises  for  separate  fami- 
lies, and  twelve  are  tenements  of  a  medium  size,  averaging  eleven  or 
twelve  rooms  each.  The  Association  desires  especially  to  extend  its  work 
of  managing  the  properties  of  other  owners,  believing  that  the  relation 
thus  established  is  stronger  and  more  enduring  than  where  the  ownership  is 
in  a  company.      Its  directors  are : 

Nathaniel  B.  Crenshaw,  President,  Girard  Trust  Company,  Broad  and 
Chestnut  streets;  Miss  Hannah  Fox,  339  South  Broad  street;  Mrs.  William  F. 
Jenks,  920  Clinton  street;  Mrs.  Thomas  S.  Kirkbride,  Secretary,  1406  Spruce 
street;  Hector  Mcintosh,  605  North  Sixteenth  street;  Miss  Helen  L.  Parrish, 
1 135  Spruce  street;  Mrs.  William  M.  Lybrand,  139  East  Walnut  Lane,  Ger- 
mantown;  George  Woodward,  M.  D.,  Chestnut  Hill;  C.  H.  Ludington,  Jr., 
Treasurer,  425  Arch  street. 

1"  Lessons  from  Work."      (B.  F.  Westcott.) 


The  Housing  Conditions  in  Boston 


By  Robert  Treat  Paine,  Esq.,  Boston 


(121) 


THE  HOUSING  CONDITIONS  IN  BOSTON 


By  Robert  Treat  Paine,  Esq. 
Boston 


The  housing  conditions  of  Boston  may  be  studied  under  five 
aspects : 

1.  The  growth  of  population  compared  with  the  increase  of 
houses. 

2.  The  facilities  for  the  building  of  new  houses  by  private 
enterprise. 

3.  The  influence  of  philanthropic  efforts  in  building  model 
blocks  and  separate  homes. 

4.  Building  laws. 

5.  The  diminution  of  slum  conditions. 

I.     The  following  table  has  been  prepared  by  Dr.  E.  M.  Hart- 
well,  statistician  of  Boston. 

Population  and  Number  of  Dwelling-Houses  with  Per  Cent  of 
Annual  Increase. 


Year 

Estimated 
Population. 

Per  Cent 
Increase. 

Total  Number 
of  Dwelling- 
Houses. 

Per  Cent 
Increase. 

Of  those 

Vacant 

Dwellings. 

1891 

457.772 

2.07 

53,429 

2.42 

I   104 

1892 

467,260 

2.07 

54,853 

2.67 

1,269 

1893 

476,945 

2.07 

56.730 

342 

1,446 

1894 

486,830 

2.07 

58,310 

2.79 

1,866 

1895 

496,920 

2.07 

60,039 

2.96 

1,964 

1896 

509,102 

2-45 

60,278 

.40 

2,205 

1897 

521,583 

2-45 

61,573 

215 

2,127 

1898 

534,370 

2-45 

62,850 

2.07 

2,647 

1899 

547.470 

2-45 

63,890 

1.65 

2,902 

1900 

560,892 

2-45 

64,886 

1.56 

2,686 

19OI 

573,579 

2.26 

65,600 

1. 10 

2,627 

In  the  ten  years  from  1891  to  1901,  while  the  population 
increased  from  457,772  to  573,579,  or  25.3  per  cent,  the  number  of 
dwelling-houses  increased  from  53,429  to  6^,600,  or  22.8  per  cent, 
not  quite  keeping  pace ;  and  though  not  a  few  of  the  new  buildings 

(123) 


124  T^^'-   Annals  of  the  American  Academy 

are  capacious  tenement  houses,  yet  actual  conditions  have  prob- 
ably not  improved.  It  is  to  be  noted  that  4  per  cent  of  the 
dwellings  are  vacant. 

2.  The  facilities  for  the  building  of  new  houses  in  the  suburbs 
steadily  increase.  The  suburbs  of  Boston  are  deservedly  healthy 
and  are  ample  for  a  vast  population. 

The  President  of  the  Boston  Elevated  Railway  Company  has 
furnished  the  following  statistics,  which  show  in  the  last  five  and 
ten  year  periods  a  marvelous  development  and  explain  the  exodus 
outward  from  the  crowded  centre  into  happy  and  healthy  subur- 
ban life  on  some  of  the  hundred  hills  which  make  these  suburbs  so 
attractive.  This  outward  migration  shows  no  sign  of  culmination, 
but  is  still  under  full  headway. 

The  running  time  of  the  cars  has  improved  so  that  it  now 
averages  nine  miles  per  hour  on  the  whole  system,  against  six  miles 
or  less  ten  years  ago  when  horses  were  used,  and  within  the  last  five 
years  it  has  been  reduced  about  8  per  cent.  The  track  mileage 
increased  from  260  miles  in  i8gi  to  296  in  1896  and  408  in  1901. 
"For  the  year  ending  September  30,  1891,  we  ran  2,326,274  trips, 
17,462,572  miles,  carried  119,264,401  revenue  passengers  and 
8,466,311  free  transfer  passengers.  The  average  length  of  each 
trip  at  that  time  was  7.5  miles.  Five  years  later  we  ran  2,822,142 
trips,  25,841,907  miles,  carried  166,862,288  revenue  passengers  and 
17,566,361  free  transfer  passengers.  The  average  length  of  each 
trip  was  9.16  miles.  Five  years  later,  or  for  the  last  fiscal  year, 
we  ran  3,883,737  trips,  43,631,384  miles,  carried  213,703,983  revenue 
passengers  and  65,000,000  free  transfer  passengers.  The  length 
of  each  trip  had  increased  to  11.23  miles." 

The  co-operative  bank  system  has  greatly  promoted  the  con- 
struction and  separate  ownership  of  the  modest  and  cosy  little 
homes  springing  up  so  rapidly  in  all  the  stiburbs  of  Boston.  The 
Pioneer  Bank  was  started  in  1877,  and  to-day  there  are  in  Boston 
eighteen  of  these  co-operative  baiiks  with  a  capital  of  $5,029,478, 
nearly  the  whole  of  it  loaned  out  on  small  estates.  A  score  of 
years  ago  it  was  no  easy  matter  to  obtain  a  "building  loan,"  but 
co-operative  banks  have  perfected  the  system  of  loans  to  builders 
upon  houses  "in  process  of  construction."  The  admirable  process 
of  small  monthly  payments  not  only  educates  the  borrowers  into 
habits  of  saving,  but  in  a  few  years  reduces  the  loan,  so  that  the 
old-fashioned  savings  banks  with  their  immense  capital  can  take 


The  Housmg  Conditions  in  Boston  125 

■up  at  lower  rates  these  loans,  when  they  are  reduced  to  the  statute 
limit  of  60  per  cent  of  the  value  of  the  estate.  Hence  it  is  the 
case  that  the  $5,000,000  of  co-operative  bank  capital  by  no  means 
measures  the  full  beneficial  influence  of  this  system  in  the  growth 
of  suburban  homes. 

3.  The  influence  of  philanthropic  enterprise,  compared  with 
that  of  private  business,  has  been  insignificant. 

Three  incorporated  societies  are  working  in  a  small  way,  the 
oldest,  the  Boston  Co-operative  Building  Company,  chartered  in 
1871.  With  a  capital  of  $292,000,  it  has  about  $400,000  invested 
in  seventy-eight  houses  with  985  rooms,  occupied  by  311  families 
containing  1,023  persons. 

The  Harrison  avenue  group  of  twenty-four  three-storied  brick 
houses — each,  except  the  corners,  arranged  for  three  families — ^lias 
attracted  deserved  attention,  with  its  hollow  square  in  the  centre, 
tastefully  arranged  as  a  playground  for  the  children,  and  a  bit  of 
beauty  for  the  parents. 

The  company  has  just  started  to  reproduce  this  hollow  square 
on  its  last  purchase  of  33,000  feet  on  Massachusetts  avenue.  Mr. 
A.  W.  Longfellow,  the  architect  of  the  Harrison  avenue  group, 
furnishes  this  plan  of  a  corner  and  a  normal  interior  house  just 
completed  on  Massachusetts  avenue,  showing  the  latest  develop- 
ments of  model  tenement  house  design,  and  also  a  land  plan. 

The  thirty-one  years  of  life  of  this  company  show  many  vicissi- 
tudes; 7  per  cent  being  earned  for  some  years,  and  then  from 
1876  to  1889,  dividends  were  stopped  or  reduced  to  3  per  cent 
and  earnings  were  invested.  Recently  dividends  have  been  6 
per  cent  or  5  per  cent.  But  the  capitalization  of  undivided  profits 
has  been  so  large,  that  it  is  not  possible  to  ascertain  what  the  just 
annual  earnings  are  from  year  to  year,  and  hence  the  educational 
influence  is  lost  upon  other  capitalists  who  might  be  incited,  by  a 
clear  and  exact  statement  of  facts,  to  follow  the  most  commendable 
lead  of  this  company  in  building  the  very  best  model  tenements 
and  having  them  managed  by  the  considerate  care  of  women  agents. 

The  Workingmen's  Building  Association  was  organized  in 
1888,  to  build  small  separate  houses  for  sale.  Its  first  purchase  of 
668,591  feet,  about  three  miles  out  in  Roxbury,  was  most  successful. 
This  tract  was  divided  into  150  lots,  averaging  4,457  feet,  so  that 
one  acre  has  ten  lots,  with  an  estimated  population  of  sixty  to 
seventv  souls. 


126 


The  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 


SECOND  PLOOR.    LIVING    ROOM 
ll^xIS^^HAUL    BCD  ROOM  "J*  10^ 


SECOND    FLOOR   LIVIWC  ROOW 
\Z\%.\^  -B%X>  ROOM  Z\-*-\^ 


FlItST  FIOOK  PLAM   OF  TWO  HOUSES  OF  THE: 
MA55ACHLr5ETT5  AVENUE.  BLOCK  FOR  THE: 
BOSTON  COOPERATIVE  BUILDING   COMPANY  f 
•  AW-LONGFELLOW  •  AKCH)TBCT- 


The  Hoiisijig  Conditions  in  Boston 


127 


( 


PLAN    SHOWING   ARRANGEMENT  OP    BLOCKS    ON  MASS.    AVE.  L  OT  t^CxiOoJ 

AS    PROPOSED     POR      THE     BOSTON     COOPeRATlVE     BUILOINQ     COMPANY   \ii    *   * 

AW  UONCrCLlOW-AKCMITtCT-  BOSTON* 


128  The  Annals  of  the  Ajnerican  Academy 

The  houses  cost  from  $i,8oo  to  $3,000,  and  were  almost  all 
for  single  families,  total  cost  of  a  house  and  land  varying  from 
$2,600  to  $4,500.  They  were  all  sold  by  1894.  Its  next  venture 
in  Dorchester  found  the  demand  for  single  houses  painfully  reduced 
in  the  depression  of  the  last  seven  years,  while  a  marked  preference 
shows  itself  for  "two-family  "  or  "three-fiat "  houses. 

This  company  has  not  succeeded  in  building  houses  at  lower 
cost,  to  its  great  regret. 

4.  The  building  laws  of  a  city  greatly  influence  results.  Bos- 
ton was  startled  by  its  great  fire  of  1872  into  creating  a  stringent 
code.  This  was  remodeled  in  1885,  chapter  374.  After  a  com- 
mission had  studied  the  subject  anew,  the  present  code  was  enacted 
in  1892,  chapter  419,  with  subsequent  amendments. 

Two  features  are  especially  important:  (i),  the  percentage 
of  the  area  of  a  lot  which  may  be  built  upon;  (2),  the  height  of  the 
buildings  and  the  provisions  as  to  fire-proof  construction. 

The  law  of  1892  permitted  three-quarters  of  the  area  to  be 
covered,  measuring  to  the  middle  of  the  streets  on  which  the  lot 
abuts.  This  proviso,  however,  would  allow  a  building  to  cover 
the  whole  of  a  lot  sixty  feet  deep  on  a  forty-foot  street.  The  act 
also  required  two  exposures  on  open  spaces  at  least  ten  feet  wide, 
of  an  aggregate  length  of  one  foot,  for  every  twenty-five  square 
feet  occupied  by  the  building. 

These  last  provisions,  however,  were  found  not  to  prohibit  the 
construction  of  a  huge  four-storied  tenement  house  on  a  lot  forty- 
two  feet  wide  and  loi  feet  deep,  built  on  a  dumb-bell  plan,  with 
only  about  two  feet  of  open  land  across  a  part,  but  not  the  whole, 
of  the  rear.  It  was  the  erection,  in  1894,  of  this  barrack,  which  led 
many  observers  to  doubt  whether  these  new  conditions  were  not 
worse  than  the  old;  whether  these  vast  tenement  houses,  sometimes 
called  model  houses,  were  not  far  worse  in  many  essentials  for  the 
health  and  welfare  of  their  occupants  than  the  little  old  houses, 
often  built  of  wood,  which  they  replaced.  These  views  are  con- 
firmed by  the  deliberate  judgment  which  IMiss  Octavia  Hill  has 
put  on  record  in  her  valuable  chapter  in  the  second  volume  of 
Charles  Booth's  great  work  on  London. 

The  construction  of  this  great  tenement  house,  with  such 
trifling  rear  light,  occasioned  the  act  of  1895,  chapter  239,  which 
reduced  the  area  to  be  occupied  from  75  to  65  per  cent,  and  also 
required  an  open  space  across  the  whole  rear  of  the  building,  and 


TJie  Housing  Conditions  in   Boston  129 

of  a  depth  equal  to  one-half  the  width  of  the  front  street,  not 
exceeding  twenty  feet,  or  an  equivalent  area  of  open  space  in  the 
rear  of  other  dimensions. 

The  act  of  1897,  chapter  413,  section  9,  exempts  comer  lots 
from  this  requirement  of  open  rear  land,  and  also  gives  the  Building 
Commissioner  discretion  to  accept  "an  equivalent  area  of  open 
space  in  the  rear  or  on  either  side  of  such  building." 

It  is  woithy  of  note  that  these  requirements  are  less  stringent 
than  those  in  the  new  tenement  house  law,  chapter  334,  of  1901,  for 
Greater  New  York,  which  limits  the  building  to  90  per  cent  of  a 
corner  lot  and  70  per  cent  of  any  other  lot. 

Secondly,  the  law  of  1897,  chapter  413,  section  3,  required 
every  tenement  house  to  be  a  first-class  building,  i.  ^.,  "  of  fire- 
proof construction  throughout."  It  was  at  once  apprehended 
that  this  requirement,  that  all  tenement  houses  must  be  of  fire- 
proof construction,  would  stop  the  building  of  tenement  houses  for 
tenants  paying  moderate  rents.  Subsequent  investigation  showed, 
that  after  existing  permits  had  been  exhausted,  few,  if  any,  tene- 
ment houses  were  built  with  tenements  renting  at  $16  a  month  -or 
less.  Reaction  set  in,  and  by  the  act  of  1900,  chapter  321,  the 
requirement  of  fire-proof  construction  was  removed  from  tenement 
houses  of  not  more  than  four  stories  and  not  more  than  fifty  feet 
in  height,  but  here  again  came  a  proviso  limiting  these  houses  to 
"two  families,  or  less,  above  the  second  story." 

This  is  the  present  tenement  house  law  of  Boston.  It  seri- 
ously handicaps  the  construction  of  tenement  houses,  but  whether 
this  is  too  stringent,  and  the  influences  are  harmful,  is  not  yet 
apparent.  So  far  as  an  impulse  is  given  to  scatter  the  population 
out  into  the  healthier  suburbs  and  into  the  small,  separate, 
detached  suburban  homes,  each  with  its  little  plot  of  land,  instead 
of  the  fearful  overcrowding  of  families  in  the  huge  new  tenement 
houses,  students  of  the  social  welfare  of  the  people  must  certainly 
rejoice. 

In  the  old  North  End  of  Boston,  where  population  is  densest 
and  rentals  are  highest,  the  erection  of  new  tenement  houses  and 
the  remodeling  of  old  buildings  into  tenement  houses  are  visible 
in  many  of  the  streets.  On  the  other  hand,  in  the  southerly  part 
of  old  Boston,  such  enterprise  is  nearly  at  a  standstill  and  rents  are 
falling,  owing  probably  to  the  greater  attractiveness  of  the  neigh- 
boring suburbs. 


130  The  Ajinals  of  the  Ai/tericaji  Academy 

The  definition  of  a  tenement  house  by  the  number  of  tene- 
ments, rather  than  by  the  number  of  rooms,  discriminates  with 
unintended  harshness  on  just  that  class  whose  welfare  ought 
especially  to  be  studied,  the  very  poor,  the  lone  widow,  the  widower, 
the  parent  with  a  single  child,  who  always  find  with  diflficulty  a 
single  spacious  room,  and  usually  pay  higher  rents  because  of  the 
short  supply  of  such  much-needed  accommodation.  Twenty 
years  ago  a  committee  of  the  Associated  Charities  made  a  report 
to  show  the  importance  of  building  tenements  of  a  single  room 
and  to  call  the  attention  of  capitalists  to  this  need.  A  small  one- 
storied  house  with  only  four  rooms,  adapted  for  the  needs  of  four 
separate  women,  must  conform  to  all  the  expensive  provisions  of 
the  tenement  house  code. 

A  just  and  judicious  amendment  should  define  a  tenement 
house  as  having  more  than  three  tenements  "and  containing  more 
than  twelve  rooms.'' 

Workers  among  the  poor  were  surprised  last  year  at  orders 
issuing  from  the  Board  of  Health,  for  single  tenants  to  vacate  single 
rooms.  Such  a  notice  was  nailed  on  the  door  of  the  large  "square 
room"  in  the  model  block  of  the  Boston  Co-operative  Building 
Company,  on  Canton  street,  occupied  by  a  lone  old  woman.  It  is 
supposed  that  this  mistaken  policy  has  been  abandoned. 

A  strange  thing  happened  in  1892;  the  building  law  of  that 
year,  chapter  419,  in  its  final  section  138,  repealing  numerous  laws, 
included  a  repeal  of  the  health  provision,  1885,  chapter  382,  section 
4,  defining  for  health  purposes  a  "tenement  house."  So  that  since 
1892,  the  Board  of  Health  has  been  shorn  of  so  much  of  its  powers 
over  tenement  houses  as  depended  on  the  definition,  so  carefully 
inserted  in  the  health  law  of  1885,  which  has  been  since  then  the 
health  code  of  Boston.  Perhaps  it  is  stranger  still  that  no  allusion 
can  be  found  in  the  annual  reports  of  the  Board  of  Health,  to  this 
mysterious  and  probably  unintended  curtailment  of  health  powers, 
the  exact  legal  efTect  whereof  no  man  can  tell.^ 

1  The  Board  of  Health,  in  their  report  for  1900,  (p.  40)  say:  "  A  tenement  house  in  Massa- 
chusetts is  one  occupied  by  four  or  more  families,  while  in  New  York  it  is  one  occupied  by 
three  families  which  was  the  law  in  Massachusetts  until  the  statute  was  amended  in  1894." 
This  sentence  is  rich  in  blunders.  No  amendment  was  made  in  1894.  The  Health  Act  of  1885, 
chapter  382,  section  4,  defined  a  tenement  house  as  one  with  "more  than  three  families."  The 
Act  of  1889,  chapter  450,  section  4,  changed  this  to  "more  than  two  families."  But  the 
whole  thing  was  repealed  by  1892,  chapter  419,  section  138,  so  that  since  1892  there  has  been  no 
definition  at  all  oj  a  tenement  house  in  the  health  code  of  Boston 


The  Housing   Conditions  in  Boston  131 

5.  A  crusade  for  the  extirpation  of  the  slums  of  Boston  has 
been  waged  for  the  last  fifteen  years,  thus  far  with  no  great  success. 
Housing  conditions  are  justly  to  be  condemned  so  long  as  old, 
dilapidated  and  unsanitary  buildings  are  allowed  to  stand,  often 
so  overcrowded  upon  the  land  that  sunlight  and  air  are  practically 
shut  out.  Such  conditions  are  a  disgrace  to  any  city.  They  tempt 
the  most  wretched  of  the  poor,  or  vicious,  or  criminal  classes  to 
worse  degradation.  The  bread-winner  loses  his  health,  which  is 
his  only  wealth.  Children  grow  up  in  shameless  loss  of  self-respect. 
Frequent  visitors  are  physicians,  police  officers,  and  charity  agents; 
physicians  to  struggle  with  needless  disease,  the  police  to  arrest 
criminals  created  by  their  foul  environment,  and  charity  agents  to 
relieve  countless  varieties  of  want  caused  by  cruel  and  unjust 
conditions  of  life. 

Private  initiative  has  been  struggling  in  these  years  to  secure 
more  vigorous  action  by  the  Board  of  Health  in  the  destruction  of 
the  worst  slums.  Prof.  Dwight  Porter,  acting  under  the  auspices 
of  a  voluntary  committee,  made  an  investigation  and  "Report  upon 
a  Sanitary  Inspection  of  Certain  Tenement-house  Districts  in  Bos- 
ton," in  1888,  which  really  started  the  movement. 

Committees  of  the  Associated  Charities  have  lodged  indict- 
ments against  many  vile  slums  and  have  been  heard  by  the  board. 
In  1 89 1-2,  the  state  caused  the  Bureau  of  Labor  to  make  a  thorough 
and  exhaustive  investigation.  The  report  of  Hon.  H.  G.  Wadlin 
sets  forth  in  two  volumes  the  results.  (22d  and  23d  Annual 
Reports  of  the  Bureau  of  the  Statistics  of  Labor.  "A  Tenement 
House  Census  of  Boston,"  made  pursuant  to  chapter  115,  Resolves 
of  1891.) 

Sanitary  conditions  were  classified  under  five  heads :  excellent, 
good,  fair,  poor,  and  bad.  It  may  be  truly  stated  that  tenements 
falling  so  low  as  to  be  classed  "bad  "  are  so  intolerable  as  to  demand 
most  summary  measures  for  their  destruction,  yet  1,346  houses 
were  found  to  deserve  this  just  but  terrible  condemnation  (Vol.  i, 

P-  577)- 

"It  may  be  safely  assumed  that  whenever  a  tenement  was 

designated  as  entirely  bad  as  to  its  inside  condition — that  is,  to  be 

more  explicit,  was  bad  as  to  facilities  for  light  and  air,  ventilation 

and  cleanliness — such  a  tenement  was  unfit  for  human  habitation. 

The  existence  of  such   tenements  forms  primarily  an  indictment 

against  the  landlord  who  is  responsible  for  their  condition.     They 


132  TJie  Ajmals  of  the  American  Academy 

should  either  be  abandoned  or  improved.  In  some  cases  such 
improvement  as  would  render  them  suitable  for  occupancy  can 
easily  be  made;  in  other  cases,  no  doubt,  they  should  be  perma- 
nently abandoned."      (Vol.  2,  p.  417.) 

"The  existence  of  defective  outside  sanitary  conditions  is, 
upon  the  whole,  an  indictment  against  the  city;  for  while  some  of  the 
defects  are  due  to  unclean  or  poorly  kept  private  ways  and  alleys, 
the  responsibility  of  the  city  for  the  existence  of  such  defects  can 
hardly  be  avoided."    (Italics  are  the  writer's.)     (Vol.  2,  p.  418.) 

In  the  reports  of  the  Boston  Board  of  Health  no  allusion  is 
found  to  this  fearful  indictment  by  the  authorities  of  the  Common- 
wealth, or  to  the  following  municipal  report. 

In  1895  a  special  committee  of  the  Common  Council  was 
appointed  to  consider  what  improvement  could  be  made  in  the 
tenement  districts  of  Boston,  and  what  legislation  was  needed. 
They  made  a  very  brief  "  Partial  Report"  (Document  125  of  1895) 
from  which  may  be  quoted: — "In  the  North  End  the  tenement 
houses  are  to-day  a  serious  menace  to  public  health.  .  .  .  The 
most  astounding  circumstance  in  connection  with  this  investigation 
that  attracted  the  attention  of  your  committee  is  the  social  and  finan- 
cial standing  of  the  owners  of  the  most  of  these  tenement  houses." 

In  1897  a  study  was  made,  under  the  direction  of  the  Tene- 
ment House  Committee  of  the  Twentieth  Century  Club,  of  certain 
typical  slums,  and  the  results  were  published  with  plans  of  some 
seven  areas  where  buildings  were  old,  dilapidated  and  so  over- 
crowded on  the  land,  that  no  remedy  was  possible  except  destruc- 
tion either  of  all  or  of  many  of  the  tenements.  ("Some  Slums  in 
Boston,"  by  H.  K.  Estabrook,  May  15,  1898.) 

A  public  hearing  was  granted  by  the  Board  of  Health  on 
June  27,  1898,  and  many  competent  experts  and  real  estate  owners 
testified  to  the  intolerable  conditions.  Mayor  Quincy  attended  the 
hearing  and  promised  strong  support.  Commendable  progress  was 
made  in  vacating  or  destroying  some  of  the  worst  slums  for  about 
three  years.  But  the  exercise  of  the  power  to  "destroy"  seems 
recently  to  have  been  paralyzed,  perhaps,  as  a  result  of  pending 
litigation. 

The  law  grants  two  powers  to  the  Board  of  Health  to  deal  with 
these  evils.  Since  1850,  chapter  108,  tenements  may  be  "vacated" 
if  adjudged  unfit  for  human  habitation.  This  power  should  be 
exercised    only    after   thorough    investigation    and    on    deliberate 


TJic  Housing  Conditions  in  Boston  133 

judgment,  setting  forth  true  and  sufficient  causes.  It  may  easily 
work  grave  injury  to  owners  if  exercised  unjustly.  Yet,  when 
justly  exercised,  orders  to  vacate  should  be  adhered  to  and  not 
lightly  rescinded  because  of  political  or  other  pressure.  Observe 
that  this  power  to  vacate  requires  no  destruction  of  the  building 
and  cannot  justly  prevent  use  of  the  vacated  tenement  for  other 
fit  purposes,  not  of  human  habitation. 

In  1897,  chapter  219,  the  power  to  destroy  [the  statute  word 
is  "remove"]  buildings  first  appeared  in  Massachusetts.  Its 
origin  is  interesting.  The  British  "  Housing  of  the  Working  Classes 
Act,"  1890  (53-54  Vict.,  chapter  70),  sections  30-37,  is  the  origin, 
so  far  as  I  know,  of  this  new  power  "to  order  the  demolition" 
of  a  "dwelling-house"  "unfit  for  human  habitation."  Section  38 
enlarged  this  power  and  made  it  apply  to  "obstructive  buildings," 
thus  condemning  one  building  because  it  injures  another  building. 
It  is  surprising  that  any  American  lawyer  could  suppose  that  such 
a  power  would  be  sustained  in  America,  where  the  unlimited  powers 
of  the  British  Parliament  are  much  curtailed  by  constitutional 
safeguards. 

Yet  New  York  soon  copied  this  British  Act  (1895,  chapter  567, 
amended  by  1897,  chapter  57)  in  shape  so  condensed  as  to  make  its 
injustice  more  conspicuous.  This  act  was  enforced  for  a  few  years 
in  the  city  of  New  York,  till  owners  of  property  began  to  defend 
their  rights  in  court.  The  suit  of  Dassori  vs.  the  Health  Depart- 
ment of  New  York  has  settled  that  this  law  cannot  be  enforced  to 
its  full  extent. 

"  Proof  that  rear  tenement  houses,  each  five  stories  high,  lighted 
only  from  a  court  on  the  west  or  front  from  five  to  eleven  feet  wide, 
and  a  space  or  opening  of  eleven  inches  wide  at  the  southeast  comer 
of  the  court,  and  a  space  on  the  east  side  of  eight  inches  filled  with 
all  sorts  of  filth,  occupied  by  115  persons,  showing  a  death-rate 
almost  twice  the  normal  one,  damp,  filthy,  infested  with  vermin, 
and  filled  with  foul  smells,  and  by  their  construction  interfering 
with  the  light  which  would  otherwise  have  been  enjoyed  by  tene- 
ment houses  on  the  front  of  the  lots,  justifies  a  finding  that  the  rear 
tenement  houses  are  unfit  for  habitation,  but  does  not  necessarily 
establish  the  fact  that  they  are  not  capable  of  being  made  fit  for 
other  uses  to  which  the  owner  might  lawfully  put  them,  nor  does  it 
show  that  the  nuisance  could  not  be  abated  in  any  other  way  than 
by  their  destruction.  ' 


1^4  The  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 

"  The  owner  of  a  tenement  house  cannot  be  compelled  to  submit 
to  its  destruction,  if  it  is  on  his  own  land,  merely  because  some 
building  adjacent  to  it  is,  by  reason  of  its  existence,  deprived  of 
proper  ventilation."  (N.  Y.  Health  Dept.  vs.  Dassori,  Appellate 
Division  Reports,  Vol.  21,  p.  348.     October,  1897.) 

Boston  deserves  no  credit  for  the  slovenly  shape  in  which  this 
faulty  law  was  reproduced,  1897,  chapter  219,  closely  following  the 
language  of  the  New  York  act.  First  the  power  to  vacate  is  set 
forth,  yet  while  covering  the  same  ground  as  our  ancient  and  well- 
tried  statute  (1850,  chap.  108;  Pub.  Sts.,  chap.  80,  sec.  24;  Revised 
Laws,  chap.  75,  sec.  71),  neither  repeals  nor  amends  it.  Then 
follows  the  power  to  order  "removed,"  i.  e.,  destroyed,  a  building 
irremediably  "unfit  for  human  habitation." 

Statute  1899,  chapter  222,  enlarged  these  powers  of  the  Board 
of  Health  so  that  the  order  may  be  not  merely  to  "vacate  "  a  build- 
ing "unfit  for  human  habitation,"  but  to  "cease  to  use"  a  building 
"unfit  for  use";  the  power  to  order  buildings  destroyed  remaining 
limited  to  those  "unfit  for  human  habitation." 

The  suit  (October,  1900)  of  Holland  vs.  Durgin  et  al.  (Board 
of  Health)  has  gone  on  appeal  to  the  Supreme  Court.  It  raises 
interesting  questions  as  to  this  last  statute,  its  constitutionality, 
the  lawfulness  of  a  decree  to  remove,  without  previous  notice  to  or 
opportunity  to  be  heard  by  the  owner,  as  well  as  the  lawfulness  of 
an  order  to  remove  stables  occupied  by  horses  and  sheds  only  for 
storage  as  "unfit  for  habitation"  {sic),  the  statute  language  being 
"unfit  for  human  habitation." 

The  Board  of  Health  is  thus  clothed  with  transcendent  powers, 
whose  exercise  vitally  affects  the  physical  and  moral  welfare, 
especially  of  that  large  portion  of  the  people  who  are  lowest  in  the 
economic  scale.  These  powers  should  only  be  lodged  in  the  hands 
of  men  of  strong  character,  sound  judgment,  sanitary  experience 
and  genuine  love  for  the  plain  people.  Yet  the  action  of  the  Boston 
Board  of  Health  has  been  characterized  for  many  years  past  by 
mysterious  apathy. 

The  law  provides  that  the  Board  of  Health  shall  make  annually 
"a  full  and  comprehensive  statement  of  its  acts  during  the  year, 
and  a  review  of  the  sanitary  condition  of  the  city,"  yet  in  the 
annual  volumes  of  the  last  ten  years  the  space  devoted  to  the 
sanitary  condition  of  the  city  has  been  utterly  insignificant. 

"To   this   subject,   houses   vacated,   nearly   a   whole   page   is 


Tlic  Housing   Conditions  in   Boston  135 

devoted  in  the  report  for  1892;  nearly  two  pages  in  the  report 
for  1893;  from  four  to  six  lines  in  each  of  the  reports  for  1894,  '95, 
and  '96;  and  not  one  word  in  the  report  for  1897.  Throughout 
the  122  pages  of  this  last  report,  this  extr.emely  important  duty 
to  vacate  houses  unfit  for  occupancy  is  not  mentioned. 

"The  report  for  1895  says  only  this:  'The  number  of  houses 
which  the  board  has  ordered  vacated  during  the  year  because  of 
their  unsanitary  condition  is  112  ;  of  this  number,  however,  a  very 
large  per  cent  were  put  in  a  satisfactory  condition  before  the 
expiration  of  the  time  allowed  the  occupants  to  quit  the  premises, 
and  in  such  cases  the  orders  were  not  enforced.'  The  report  for 
1896  simply  quotes  this  one  sentence,  word  for  word — except  that 
'121 '  is  substituted  for  '112.'  This  one  sentence,  then,  is  the  'full 
and  comprehensive   statement'   of  the  acts  of  the  three  years, 

1895-7-" 

In  none  of  these  reports  since  1892  "is  a  list  given  either  of 
houses  ordered  vacated  or  of  houses  actually  vacated,  yet  hun- 
dreds of  other  lists  and  tables  are  given,  as  lists  of  stables  ordered 
discontinued,  of  passageways  paved,  and  even  of  minor  defects 
in  certain  houses.  While  in  the  reports  of  the  New  York  Board 
of  Health  there  are  complete  lists  of  houses  vacated  and  of  those 
demolished,  in  only  two  of  our  reports,  those  for  1892  and  '93,  are 
any  of  the  houses  ordered  vacated  named." 

The  objection  of  injury  to  tenants  'by  the  destruction  of 
slums  has  no  weight.  The  Associated  Charities  (Report  of  1898, 
pp.  40-48)  seized  the  occasion  of  the  building  of  the  South  Station 
and  the  change  in  the  neighborhood,  in  1897-8,  to  cause  a  careful 
study  to  be  made  of  the  results  upon  the  welfare  of  the  twelve 
poorest  families  known  to  them  when  that  sudden  and  forced 
migration  occurred.  "It  brought  out  the  interesting  fact  that  in 
every  case  the  condition  of  the  family  was  improved  by  the  change." 

Death-rates  by  wards  are  shown  in  the  annual  report  of  1901 
of  .the  Registry  Department  of  Boston  for  the  first  time,  so  that 
it  is  possible  to  compare.  The  ghastly  fact  stands  out  that  the 
death-rate  in  some  wards  is  more  than  double  what  it  is  in  the 
healthier  wards,  viz:  one  person  dying  in  the  year  1900  out  of  39 
in  Ward  7,  40  in  Ward  13,  41  in  Ward  6,  and  42  in  Ward  5,  con- 
trasted with  one  in  81  in  Ward  25,  72  in  Ward  24,  71  in  Ward  23, 
69  in  Ward  20  (p.  5). 

Now  that  this  table  proves  how  the  murder  of  the  innocents 


136  The  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 

goes  on,  the  public  conscience  should  be  aroused.  Statisticians 
will  also  tell  us  that  the  ratio  of  sickness  keeps  pace  with  the  ratio 
of  death,  so  that  sickness  among  the  poor,  with  its  train  of  evils, 
is  twofold  more  than  good  sanitary  conditions  should  tolerate. 

The  model  buildings  of  London  have  told  the  world  what  a 
powerful  influence  upon  the  length  of  life  (and  of  course  upon  the 
amount  of  sickness)  of  their  occupants  is  exerted  by  healthy  homes. 
The  Peabody  buildings  with  a  population  of  about  20,000  show  a 
death-rate  of  about  i  in  71;  and  the  Waterlow  buildings,  with 
30,000  tenants,  about  i  in  100,  while  the  rate  of  all  London  is  about 
I  in  57.     In  Boston,  i  out  of  48  dies  yearly. 

A  Tenement  House  Commission  will  probably  be  appointed 
by  the  Mayor  this  year,  to  consider  and  report  upon  existing  con- 
ditions and  possible  improvement. 

On  the  whole,  the  outlook  is  full  of  hope.  Vigilance  and 
vigorous  action  are  demanded  of  all  municipal  authorities.  Public 
interest  is  aroused.  The  action  of  other  cities  in  Great  Britain  as 
well  as  in  New  York  and  other  American  cities  warns  Boston  not 
to  fall  behind  in  this  movement,  which  will  surely  give  to  us  and  our 
children  a  healthier  city  for  the  homes  of  the  plain  people,  with  its 
plague  spots  extirpated,  and  an  increasing  proportion  of  the  popu- 
lation living  out  in  suburban  homes  in  this  city  of  imsurpassed 
suburban  beauty. 


Housing   Conditions   in  Jersey  City 


By  Mary  Buell  Sayles,  Fellow  of  the  College  Settlements 

Association 


('37) 


HOUSING  CONDITIONS  IN  JERSEY  CITY 


By  Mary  Buell  Sayles 
Fellow  of  the  College  Settlements  Association 


The  housing  of  the  working  people  in  Jersey  City  presents  few- 
striking  or  distinctive  features.  There  are  in  the  crowded  parts 
of  the  city  no  such  alley-intersected  or  narrow  back  street  districts 
as  are  found  in  certain  sections  of  Chicago  and  Philadelphia;  there 
is  no  block  which  presents  such  conspicuously  bad  conditions  of 
overcrowded  land  areas,  and  consequently  deficient  lighting  and 
ventilation,  as  prevail  throughout  the  newer  tenement  house  dis- 
tricts of  New  York.  None  the  less  the  evils  of  construction  of 
sanitary  neglect  and  of  overcrowded  living  quarters,  which  have 
been  brought  to  light  in  the  recently  completed  investigation  upon 
which  the  present  article  is  based,  are  of  a  character  both  to  claim 
the  interest  of  specialists  and  to  compel  the  attention  of  citizens. 

In  his  report  on  housing  conditions  and  tenement  laws  in 
leading  American  cities,  Mr.  Veiller,  then  secretary  of  the  New 
York  Tenement  House  Commission  of  1900,  notes  but  four  cities, 
out  of  the  twenty-seven  which  he  discusses,  as  having  a  tenement 
house  problem.  Among  these  is  Jersey  City.  Yet  compared  with 
the  situation  in  New  York,  the  Jersey  City  tenement  house  problem 
is  still  in  its  early  stages.  The  great  mass  of  the  working  class 
population  is  housed  either  in  converted  dwellings  or  in  tenement 
houses  of  the  primitive  type  commonly  erected  here,  as  in  Man- 
hattan, twenty  to  forty  years  ago;  and  these  two  classes  of  houses, 
which  in  the  great  city  have  been  rapidly  giving  way,  during  the  last 
generation,  before  the  onslaught  of  the  dumb-bell  tenement  with  its 
characteristic  eighteen-inch  wide  air-shaft  and  overcrowded  lot, 
in  the  smaller  city  show  few  signs  of  a  similar  yielding  of  place. 
Very  few  tenements  are  at  present  in  process  of  erection,  and  so 
few  built  within  the  last  five  or  even  ten  years  were  found  in  the 
districts  investigated,  that  it  is  difficult  to  speak  with  certainty  of 
present  tendencies  in  construction.  It  is,  therefore,  chiefly  to  evils 
long  fixed  upon  the  community  and  grown  so  familiar  as  to  be 
generally  overlooked,  that  attention  has  been  directed — evils  none 
the  less  serious  for  this  fact,  and  all  the  more  difficult  to  eradicate. 

(139) 


140  Tlic  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 

The  investigation  upon  which,  as  has  been  said,  the  present 
paper  is  based,  was  necessarily  very  Hmited  in  scope,  as  it  was 
undertaken  single-handed  and,  under  the  conditions  of  the  College 
Settlements  Association  fellowship,  confined  to  a  single  academic 
year.  Five  hundred  houses 'having  been  decided  upon  as  a  reason- 
able estimate  of  the  field  which  could  and  should  be  covered,  three 
districts  were  selected  as  representative  both  of  the  worst  and — 
hardly  less  important — of  average  housing  conditions.  Seventeen 
blocks  in  all  were  investigated.  Of  these  the  investigation  of  the 
first  was  largely  experimental,  as  it  was  undertaken  before  the 
printing  of  the  regular  schedules  used  later  on,  and  its  results, 
though  hardly  less  complete  than  those  afterwards  obtained,  are 
not  in  all  respects  uniform  with  them,  and  have  therefore,  for  the 
present,  been  set  aside.  It  is  then  with  the  returns  from  sixteen 
blocks,  consisting  of  the  records  of  five  hundred  and  four  houses,* 
and  of  two  thousand  one  hundred  and  fifty-four  apartments,^  that 
we  shall  deal  in  this  paper.' 

Of  the  three  districts,  the  first  and  largest  includes  the  eight 
blocks  bounded  by  Sussex  and  Essex  and  by  Van  Vorst  and  Hud- 
son streets,  together  with  two  others  adjoining,  extending  between 
Hudson  and  Greene  to  Grand,  and  between  Van  Vorst  and  Warren 
to  Dudley  street.  The  widest  range  of  conditions,  as  might  be 
expected  from  its  relative  size,  is  to  be  found  in  this  distriet.  From 
the  comfortable  well-built  dwellings  of  Sussex  street,  only  recently 
converted  to  tenement  house  uses,  and  still  in  a  large  proportion 
of  cases  unaltered,  to  the  four  and  five  story  brick  tenements  and 
the  huddled  rear  houses  of  Morris  and  Essex  streets,  every  type 
and  grade  of  house  is  represented.  The  population  of  the  district 
is  overwhelmingly  foreign.  Only  i8  per  cent  of  the  1,278  families 
interviewed  were  of  American  stock,  while  in  some  of  the  blocks 
south  of  Morris  street  the  percentage  falls  as  low  as  1 1  per  cent. 

1  Entrance  to  nine  houses  within  these  blocks  was  prevented  by  owners — seven  of  the 
houses  belonging  to  one  person.  While  the  Board  of  Health  badge  was  worn  by  the  investi- 
gator, no  actual  authority  was  conferred  therewith,  so  that  entrance  to  houses  or  apartments 
could  not  be  insisted  upon. 

^  These  2,154  apartments  make  up  98  per  cent  of  all  occupied  apartments  in  the  houses  in- 
vestigated. In  the  case  of  a  few  of  the  remaining  apartments,  information  was  refused  by 
tenants;  in  most  cases,  however,  the  apartments  were  not  investigated  because  tenants  could 
not  be  found  at  home  during  the  day,  neighbors  stating  that  they  were  absent  regularly  St 
work. 

^  A  very  few  apartments  were  occupied  by  two  families ;  hence  the  slightly  greater  number 
of  families  than  of  apartments  covered. 


Housing-   Conditions  in  Jersey    City  141 

The  foreijjii  elements  most  largely  represented  are  the  Polish  and 
Russian,  who  together  lead  with  28  per  cent ;  the  Germans  who  follow 
with  20  per  cent,  and  the  Irish  with  18  per  cent.  Twenty  other 
nationalities  are  represented,  but  as  the  most  numerous,  the 
Jewish,  is  represented  by  but  thirty-two  families,  no  one  of  them 
forms  an  important  element  numerically  in  the  population. 

The  industrial  attractions  which  have  brought  together  this 
foreign  population  are  not  far  to  seek.  The  great  American  Sugar 
Refinery  looms  conspicuously  on  the  southern  boundary  of  the 
district;  numerous  other  factories  and  workshops  are  interspersed 
through  the  blocks;  while  to  the  north,  within  a  few  minutes'  walk, 
lies  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad,  and  to  the  south,  across  a  narrow 
strip  of  water,  stretch  the  docks  of  the  Central  Railroad  of  New 
Jersey.  The  foreign  population  shows,  as  was  to  be  expected,  a 
heavy  preponderance  of  factory  hands,  railroad  employees,  and 
longshoremen. 

The  second  district  includes  the  two  blocks  bounded  by  Rail- 
road avenue  and  Morgan  street  and  by  Henderson  and  Warren 
streets,  and  another  adjoining,  extending  between  Provost  and 
Henderson  to  Bay  street.  Bounded  to  the  south  by  the  Penn- 
sylvania Railroad's  elevated  tracks,  stretching  out  toward  the  Erie 
Railroad,  and  hedged  in  towards  the  Hudson  by  factories,  foun- 
deries  and  workshops,  it  offers  to  the  irnmigrant  almost  the  same  in- 
ducements of  employment  as  does  District  I,  and  presents  an 
even  larger  percentage  of  foreign-born  inhabitants.  Of  the  506 
families  whose  apartments  were  investigated,  not  quite  14  per  cent 
were  Americans,  42  per  cent  were  Polish,  18  per  cent  Irish,  13 
per  cent  Italians  and  4  per  cent  Germans.  Among  the  remaining 
families  the  Jewish  lead,  numbering  16. 

The  houses  of  this  district  correspond  with  the  older  and  more 
neglected  portion  of  District  I,  showing,  however,  a  larger  pro- 
portion of  wooden  buildings  and  a  smaller  proportion  of  high 
tenements. 

District  III,  consisting  of  the  three  blocks  bounded  by  First 
and  Second  and  by  Monmouth  and  Merseles  streets,  is  located 
farther  from  the  business  centre  of  the  city  and  from  the  water 
front,  near  the  foot  of  the  hill  on  which  are  situated  most  of  the 
better-class  resident  districts.  It  lies  in  the  heart  of  what  is  known 
as  Little  Italy— the  most  distinctively  national  section  of  the  city, 
and  the  most  dilapidated  and  neglected.     Sixty-five  per  cent  of  the 


142  Tlic  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 

377  families  interviewed  were  Italians,  and  their  manner  of  packing 
themselves  solidly  where  once  they  enter  into  possession  gives  to 
the  southern  half  of  the  district,  with  the  blocks  adjoining,  an  in- 
tensely foreign  aspect.  The  lemaining  35  per  cent,  among  whom 
the  Irish,  the  American  with  10  per  cent,  and  the  German  nation- 
alities predominate,  are  interspersed  chiefly  on  the  northern  side 
of  the  blocks,  along  Second  street. 

Rival  attractions  to  the  railroads,  factories  and  docks,  which 
claim  so  large  a  part  of  the  population  in  the  other  two  districts, 
are  here  offered  by  the  dump-grounds  adjacent.  Irregular  heavy 
laboring  work  is,  however,  the  predominating  occupation  among 
the  Italians,  though  the  rag-picker  and  junk-dealer  are  frequently 
found,  as  well  as  the  omnipresent  factory  hand. 

So  much  for  the  characteristics  of  the  separate  districts.  For 
the  remainder  of  the  paper,  the  houses  will  be  dealt  with,  in  the 
main,  without  regard  to  district  lines.  Some  preliminary  classi- 
fications may  properly  be  given  before  more  detailed  points  of  con- 
struction and  sanitation  are  taken  up,  or  special  evils  pointed 
out. 

First  of  all,  classifying  the  504  houses  by  materials,  we  find 
that  just  55  per  cent  are  of  wood,  and  45  per  cent  of  brick — a  few 
of  the  former  having  brick,  and  a  few  of  the  latter  stone,  fronts. 
If  we  group  them  by  the  number  of  stories,  three-story  and  three- 
story-and-basement  houses  are  found  to  lead  with  54  per  cent; 
four  and  four-story-and-basement  houses  come  next  with  31  per 
cent;  5  per  cent  have  five  stories;  the  remaining  10  per  cent  have 
either  two  stories  or  two  stories  and  basement,  with  the  exception 
of  two  houses,  one  and  one-half  stories  and  one-story-and-base- 
ment  respectively. 

Again,  we  may  group  the  houses  by  the  number  of  apartments 
contained.  Houses  occupied  by  but  one  family  were  not  touched 
in  the  investigation,  but  sixty-three  two-family  houses  were 
examined,  leaving  431  houses  which  contain  accommodations 
for  three  families  or  more,  thus  falling  under  the  definition  of  a 
tenement  house  most  generally  accepted  throughout  the  country. 
Three-apartment  houses  are  most  common,  25  per  cent  of  the 
total  number  falling  under  this  head;  58  percent  have  from  four 
to  nine  apartments;  of  houses  containing  ten  apartments  or 
more  there  are  twenty-three,  or  4  per  cent. 

Another  significant  classification  of  houses  is  that  by  position 


Housing   Coiiditio)is  in  Jersey   City  143 

on  the  lot.  Fourteen  per  cent  of  the  houses  investigated  are  rear 
houses.  These  figures,  however,  give  little  idea  of  the  actual  aspect 
of  things,  as  two  blocks  are  without  any  rear  houses,  and  six  others 
have  but  one  or  two  each,  while  in  one  block  rear  houses  constitute 
no  less  than  40  per  cent  of  all.  These  houses  are  seldom  over  three 
stories  in  height,  are  almost  always  of  wood,  are  in  general  very 
old  and  frequently  dilapidated. 

Turning  now  from  classifications  of  the  houses  themselves 
to  consider  the  apartments  they  contain,  we  find  that  three-room 
apartments  lead  by  a  wide  margin,  constituting  41  per  cent  of  the 
total  of  2,154.  Next  come  four-room  apartments  with  28  per  cent; 
two-room  apartments  with  1 2  per  cent ;  five-room  apartments  with 
7  per  cent ;  six-room  apartments  with  4  per  cent.  Of  one-room 
apartments  there  is  less  than  i  per  cent  .  One  per  cent  of  the 
apartments  examined  contained  over  six  rooms. 

If  now,  leaving  these  preliminary  statistics,  we  turn  to  matters 
of  greater  interest,  we  shall  find  it  convenient  to  group  the  chief 
evils  found,  as  first,  evils  of  construction,  under  which  we  shall 
speak  only  of  the  two  leading  faults,  lack  of  proper  provision  for 
escape  in  case  of  fire,  and  inadequate  lighting  and  ventilation; 
next,  sanitary  evils,  some  of  which  are  structural  and  some  the 
result  of  natural  conditions  or  neglect;  and  lastly,  evils  of  occu- 
pancy, chief  among  which  is  that  of  overcrowded  apartments. 

The  absence  of  fire-escapes  is  perhaps  the  most  conspicuous  and 
glaring  fault  observable  in  the  tenement  houses  of  Jersey  City.  Of 
the  twenty-four  five-story  buildings  found,  just  one-half  were 
provided  with  fire-escapes;  while  of  the  155  four-story  or  four- 
story-and-basement  houses,  only  four  were  so  equipped.  After 
these  figures  it  will  hardly  surprise  anyone  to  learn  that  in  no  case 
was  a  fire-escape  found  upon  a  three-story  house.  There  are  thus 
out  of  a  total  of  431  tenement  houses,  most  of  them  three  stories 
or  more  in  height,  but  sixteen,  or  3  per  cent,  which  are  provided 
with  fire-escapes  of  any  kind. 

The  character  of  the  fire-escapes  found  makes  them  in  a  num- 
ber of  cases  practically  valueless.  The  balconies  of  five  had 
wooden  floors;  and  not  only  in  a  large  proportion  of  cases  were 
balconies  seriously  encumbered  and  stairway  or  ladder  openings 
covered  by  tenants,  but  in  two  instances  trap  doors  were  regularly 
fitted  to  these  openings,  the  owner  thus  encouraging  the  use  of  the 
balcony  as  a  general  catch-all  and  storage  place.     Furthermore, 


144  The  Amials  of  the  American  Academy 

in  only  three  houses  did  all  the  apartments  above  the  ground  floor 
have  access  to  a  balcony,  while  in  one  instance,  but  one  out  of  four 
families  was  provided  with  such  means  of  egress.  No  form  of  fire- 
proof construction  was  anywhere  found,  even  the  dumb-waiter 
shafts  in  the  higher  buildings,  well  known  to  be  one  of  the  most 
common  paths  by  which  fire  spreads,  being  almost  without  excep- 
tion of  wood. 

In  regard  to  lighting  and  ventilation,  the  facts  are  less  easily 
grouped.  The  buildings  being  seldom  of  a  depth  to  encroach 
seriously  upon  the  yards,  we  find,  with  the  exception  of  a  very  few 
of  the  higher  houses,  that  nearl}^  all  of  the  kitchens  and  general 
living-rooms  open  upon  the  yard  or  street  and  are  thus  adequately 
lighted.  In  the  converted  dwellings,  and  in  all  houses  occupied 
by  but  one  family  on  each  floor,  a  large  proportion  of  bedrooms 
also  are  open  to  the  outer  air.  But  in  the  three  or  four  story 
buildings  erected  originally  for  tenement  uses,  and  furnishing  ac- 
commodations for  two  families  or  more  on  a  floor,  a  light  bedroom 
is  more  nearly  the  exception  than  the  rule.  The  typical  interior 
room  is  lighted  by  a  window  to  the  outer  living-room  or  a  public 
hall,  these  windows  seldom  having  more  than  five  square  feet  of 
glazed  surface,  and  more  frequently  an  area  of  from  three  to  four 
square  feet.  One  thousand  and  eighty-four  such  rooms  were  noted 
in  the  course  of  the  investigation;  while — a  still  more  serious  evil — 
399  rooms  were  found  which  had  no  window  at  all,  and  in  most 
cases  not  even  a  transom  opening  into  another  room. 

Light  and  air  shafts  were  found  in  only  a  small  proportion  of 
the  tenement  houses  investigated;  and  a  light  and  air  shaft  which 
is  more  than  the  merest  travesty  of  its  respectable  name  is  em- 
phatically an  exception.  The  typical  shaft  is  a  triangular  or  oblong 
niche  in  the  outer  wall,  with  an  area  of  from  five  to  twenty  square 
feet ;  an  occasional  variation  being  found  in  a  square  shaft  of  about 
the  same  area,  let  into  the  interior  of  the  house  and  covered  in  most 
cases  by  a  skylight.  Below  the  top  story  such  shafts  furnish  prac- 
tically no  light,  while  tenants  bore  almost  unvarying  witness  that 
windows  upon  them  were  uniformly  kept  closed.  A  single  whiff 
of  the  pent-up  air  within  their  narrow  walls  is  quite  sufficient  to 
convince  one  of  the  wisdom  of  such  disregard  of  their  presence; 
and  one  feels  no  surprise  in  reading  the  evidence  of  chemists  and 
physicians  as  to  the  positive  injury  to  health  wrought  by  pre- 
tended ventilation   of  this   sort  — evidence    which  has  led  to  the 


Housing  Conditions  in  Jersey   City  145 

giving  of  the  suggestive  name  of  culture  tubes  to  such  shafts. 
Among  evils  of  sanitation  only  a  few  of  the  most  serious  can 
be  touched  upon.  Most  conspicuous  and  widespread  of  all  is  that 
of  the  foul  and  ill-smelling  privy  vault.  Seventy-five  per  cent 
of  the  houses  investigated  furnish  no  toilet  accommodations 
save  these  objectionable  structures  in  the  yard.  The  vaults  are 
in  the  main  sewer-connected,  one  block  and  part  of  another  in 
District  III  being  the  only  sections  in  which  no  street  sewer  is 
laid,  though  unsewered  vaults  were  found  in  small  numbers  else- 
where. But  a  sewer  connection  is  in  a  large  proportion  of  cases 
a  most  illusory  blessing.  The  great  mass  of  solid  matter  frequently 
remains  after  the  liquids  have  run  ofT  to  the  sewer,  and  its  decom- 
position renders  the  air  of  the  yard,  upon  which  the  rear  rooms  de- 
pend, many  times  almost  intolerable.  In  two  cases  school-sinks — 
modified  privies,  with  metal  vaults  in  which  water  stands — were 
discovered  in  cellars;  but  as  the  water  was  changed,  according  to 
the  testimony  of  tenants,  but  once  a  week,  these  cannot  be  said 
to  ofifer  many  advantages  over  the  ordinary  privy.  Among  the  368 
water-closets  in  use  in  the  remaining  houses,  the  old  and  objection- 
able pan  closets  number  sixty-one;  while  numerous  water-closet 
compartments  are  either  entirely  unventilated  or  have  windows 
only  to  halls  or  rooms,  and  in  a  number  of  cases,  especially  on  the 
top  floor  of  five-story  buildings,  the  water- flush  is  wholly  inade- 
quate to  cleanse  the  bowl. 

A  serious  evil  is  also  found  in  the  location  and  condition  of 
household  sinks.  In  seventy  of  the  houses  investigated  all  such 
sinks  were  located  in  the  public  hall,  while  in  fifty-five  other  houses 
sinks  were  so  located  on  one  or  more  floors.  Nearly  every  such 
sink  is  used  by  two  families.  In  one  block,  chosen  at  haphazard 
from  those  of  the  Italian  district,  sixty  apartments  were  found 
whose  occupants  were  obliged  so  to  share  their  sink;  while  fifteen 
other  apartments  were  provided  with  but  one  sink  to  every  three 
or  four  apartments.  Furthermore,  eight  houses  were  found  in 
which,  in  flat  defiance  of  a  city  ordinance,  no  water  at  all  was 
furnished  indoors.  One  row  of  four  such  houses,  containing  in  all 
twenty-two  apartments,  was  provided  with  but  two  hydrants  in 
the  common  yard,  one  hydrant  serving  for  ten,  the  other  for  twelve 
apartments. 

.  The  collection  of  statistics  as  to  the  plumbing  of  sinks  was  not 
at  first  attempted,  but  was  taken  up  as  the  result  of  an  observation 


146  The  An7ials  of  the  Americmi  Academy 

of  conditions  in  the  earlier  blocks  investigated.  Eleven  hundred 
and  sixty-two  sinks,  located  in  four  blocks  of  District  I,  and  in  the 
six  blocks  of  Districts  II  and  III,  were  examined.  Of  these  only 
10  pe  cent  were  properly  trapped  and  vented;  68  per  cent  were 
trapped  bat  not  vented — a  far  from  satisfactory  state  of  affairs, 
especially  where  as  in  many  cases  traps  were  so  small  or  other- 
wise defective  as  to  be  practically  useless;  10  per  cent  were  neither 
trapped  nor  vented,  the  pipes  thus  offering  free  passage  to  the  con- 
taminated sewer  air ;  1 2  per  cent  were  boarded  up  solidly,  so  that 
the  waste-pipes  could  not  be  examined — an  almost  sure  sign  that 
the  concealed  plumbing  is  of  the  oldest  and  worst  type. 

One  serious  element  in  the  insanitary  conditions  of  the  dis- 
tricts investigated,  which,  unlike  those  just  mentioned,  cannot 
primarily  be  charged  to  the  householder,  is  found  in  the  character 
of  the  land  upon  which  a  large  part  of  lower  Jersey  City  is  built. 
Only  six  of  the  sixteen  blocks  investigated  are  composed  entirely 
of  original  solid  ground.  Five  blocks  in  District  I  were  in  greater 
or  less  degree  formed  by  the  filling  in  of  marsh  land  or  the  ex- 
tension of  the  water  front.  All  of  District  II,  and  nearly  all  of  two 
blocks  of  District  III,  were  so  formed.* 

The  significance  of  these  facts  appears  when  we  realize  that 
land  so  made  is  largely  intermingled  with  refuse  matter,  and,  still 
more  important,  is  generally  damp  and  is  subject  to  periodic  risings 
of  tidewater.  In  a  large  proportion  of  the  houses  built  upon  such 
land,  observations  of  the  investigator,  supplemented  by  the  testi- 
nony  of  tenants,  proves  that  the  water  in  cellars  unprotected,  as 
are  nearly  all,  by  water-proof  flooring,  stands  at  times  to  a  depth 
of  several  inches.  Sewage  is  thus  frequently  washed  back  into 
yards  and  cellars,  first-floor  apartments  are  rendered  damp  and 
unhealthful,  and  nauseating  odors  suggest  the  serious  danger  to 
health  which  such  a  condition  brings  upon  the  entire  house.  For- 
tunately the  cellar-dwelling  evil  is  not  a  prevalent  one  in  Jersey 
City ;  yet  one  instance  is  recalled  where  a  family  paying  for  four 
rooms  in  the  basement  and  first  floor  had  been  obliged  to  vacate 
the  lower  two  rooms  entirely — the  men  of  the  family  wading 
through  water  knee-deep  to  rescue  the  kitchen  stove. 

One  of  the  most  serious  evils  from  which  the  poorer  classes 
suffer  is  that  of    overcrowded  apartments.      As  was  anticipated 

'  See  topographical  map  prepared  for  the  National  Board  of  Health  in  1880  by  Spielman  & 
Bmsh.     The  only  copy  known  to  exist  is  in  the  Jersey  City  Public  Library. 


Housing  Conditions  in  Jersey   City  147 

from  the  facts  brought  to  light  by  investigations  in  other  American 
cities,  this  evil  was  found  to  be  most  prevalent  among  the  poorest 
foreign  population,  especially  the  Poles  and  Italians,  and  is  largely 
due  to  the  custom  of  taking  so  called  boarders — really,  in  most 
cases,  lodgers,  who  provide  their  own  bedding  and  pay  in  the 
neighborhood  of  two  dollars  a  month. 

There  are  two  ways  of  measuring  overcrowding  in  apartments ; 
by  number  of  individuals  per  room,  and  by  cubic  air  space  per  in- 
dividual. To  secure  perfectly  accurate  results,  it  is  of  course 
necessary  to  discover  just  how  many  rooms  in  a  given  apartment 
are  occupied  for  sleeping  purposes  and  how  many  persons  sleep 
in  each.  This  may  seem  a  simple  matter,  but  in  practice  reliable 
results  are  not  only  very  difficult,  but  in  many  cases  impossible  to 
secure,  save  by  a  night  inspection.  Not  only  must  allowance  be 
made  for  very  general  under-statement  of  the  number  of  boarders 
taken,  but  in  a  large  proportion  of  cases  either  no  answers  at  all  or 
wholly  unsatisfactory  answers  can  be  obtained  to  questions  as  to 
the  distribution  of  members  of  the  family  and  of  boarders  at  night. 
Under  these  circumstances  it  has  seemed  best,  instead  of  attempting 
to  state  the  number  of  individuals  sleeping  in  each  room  and  the 
precise  cubic  air  space  afforded  by  that  room  to  each,  to  give  the 
ratio  of  number  of  occupants  to  entire  number  of  rooms  in  each 
apartment,  and  the  cubic  air  space  per  individual  afforded  by  that 
apartment  as  a  whole.  Only  rough  indications  of  the  degree  of 
overcrowding  at  night  are  of  course  given  by  this  method,  but  it 
has  at  least  the  advantage  of  greater  accuracy  so  far  as  it  goes  than 
could  fairly  be  claimed  for  one  seemingly  more  precise. 

Applying  the  method  of  measurement  by  cubic  air  space  to  the 
2,154  apartments  investigated,  we  find  that  in  65  per  cent  of 
them  each  occupant  has  an  allowance  of  600  cubic  feet  of  air  or  more. 
Living  conditions  in  most  of  these  apartments  are  fair,  and  in  many 
good ;  yet  some  of  the  most  disgraceful  cases  of  overcrowding  were 
found  among  them — as  in  one  apartment,  where  in  a  single  large 
room  two  little  girls  of  about  twelve  years  slept,  together  with  a  vary- 
ing number  of  male  boarders.  The  remaining  35  per  cent  of  apart- 
ments afford  less  than  600  cubic  feet  of  air  space  per  occupant. 
This  means  in  nearl}''  all  cases  a  serious  degree  of  overcrowding ;  since 
if  bedrooms  alone  are  occupied  at  night  such  an  allowance  for  the 
whole  apartment  means  actually  on  an  average  less  than  400  cubic 
feet,  and  often  less  than  300  or  even  200  cubic  feet  for  each  person; 
while  if  the  crowding  compels  the  use  of  the  kitchen  for  sleeping 


148  Tlie  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 

purposes,  other  evils  hardly  less  serious  are  added  to  those  of 
limited  air  space.  Such  being  the  meaning  of  the  figures  given,  it  be- 
comes evident  that  in  the  199  apartments,  9  per  cent  of  all,  in  which 
there  were  found  to  be  less  than  400  cubic  feet  of  air  space  to  each 
occupant  in  the  apartment  as  a  whole,  very  serious  danger  to  health 
exists.  It  is  below  the  limit  of  400  cubic  feet  per  adult,  with  a 
smaller  allowance  for  children,  that  government  interference  has 
generally  been  authorized,  where  authorized  at  all;  as  is  notably 
the  case  in  Glasgow,  where  the  law  is  enforced  by  an  especially 
efificient  system  of  night  inspection,  and  among  American  cities  in 
New  York. 

The  other  test  of  overcrowding,  by  ratio  of  number  of  persons 
to  number  of  rooms,  while  a  less  accurate  means  of  estimating  eflfect 
on  health,  furnishes  a  more  accurate  indication  of  the  relation  of 
overcrowding  to  standards  of  decency.  An  example  typical  of 
many  cases  met  with  will  make  this  distinction  clear.  Suppose 
two  large  high-ceiled  rooms  with  a  total  cubic  contents  of  3,500 
cubic  feet,  occupied  by  eight  people.  Each  person  has  then  more 
than  the  minimum  of  400  cubic  feet ;  yet  the  absence  of  any  possi- 
bility of  privacy  or  decency  of  living  involved  where  men  and 
women  boarders,  parents  and  growing  children  make  up  the  eight, 
need  not  be  dwelt  upon.  It  is  evident  that  four  rooms  with  an 
aggregate  contents  of  less  than  3,200  cubic  feet  might  be  occupied 
by  the  same  eight  persons  with  perhaps  greater  danger  to  health 
from  limited  breathing  space,  but  with  certainly  better  opportuni- 
ties for  separation  by  sexes. 

If  we  apply  this  second  method  of  measurement,  we  find  that  in 
24  per  cent  of  the  total  number  of  apartments  there  are  two  persons 
or  more  to  each  room.  Such  apartments  may  fairly  be  classed  as 
overcrowded;  since  either  every  room  is  occupied  for  sleeping 
purposes,  or  if  one  room  is  reserved  for  kitchen  and  living-room, 
the  bedrooms  are  shared  by  a  minimum  average  of  two  and  two- 
thirds,  three  or  four  persons  each,  according  as  the  number  of  rooms 
in  the  apartment  is  four,  three  or  two.'  To  appreciate  what  this 
means  it  is  of  course  necessary  to  realize  that  few  bedrooms  in 
such  apartments  contain  more  than  800  cubic  feet,  while  a  large 
proportion  are  dark  interior  rooms  containing  from  600  to  400  cubic 
feet  or  even  less.  These  facts  having  been  pointed  out,  it  is  un- 
necessary further  to  emphasize  the  seriousness  of  the  state  of 
affairs,  where,  as  in  196  apartments,  9  per  cent  of  the  total  num- 

1  Very  little  overcrowding  was  found  in  apartments  of  more  than  four  rooms. 


Housing  Conditions  in  Ja^scy   City  149 

ber,  the  ratio  of  number  of  occupants  to  number  of  rooms  rises  as 
high  as  2.5  or  more. 

Space  -will  not  permit  of  an  extended  comparison  of  these  con- 
ditions of  overcrowding  with  those  revealed  by  similar  investiga- 
tions in  other  cities.  It  is  interesting,  however,  to  note  in  passing 
that  the  average  number  of  individuals  per  room  in  the  districts 
investigated  is  higher  than  the  average  number  of  occupants  per 
room  in  the  9,859  apartments  covered  by  the  recent  investigation 
of  the  City  Homes  Association  in  Chicago;  the  former  being  1.35, 
and  the  latter  1.28  persons.  While  averages  do  not  form  the  most 
satisfactory  basis  of  comparison,  a  difiference  so  marked  as  this 
unquestionably  indicates  a  greater  degree  of  overcrowding  in  the 
Jersey  City  than  in  the  Chicago  districts. 

Enough  has  been  said,  it  is  believed,  to  show  that  serious  hous- 
ing problems  demand  solution  in  Jersey  City.  While  the  investi- 
gation covered  the  living  environment  of  but  10,179  persons  out 
of  a  total  city  population  of  206,433,  i^  niay  yet  fairly  claim  to  have 
some  representative  value.  The  districts  investigated  of  course 
present  conditions  different  in  some  respects  from  those  of  the  city 
as  a  whole.  Thus — to  use  a  method  of  comparison  too  rough  to 
have  any  but  a  suggestive  value — while  but  28  per  cent  of  the  total 
population  of  the  city  are  foreigners,  84  per  cent  of  the  heads  of  fam- 
ilies whose  apartments  were  investigated  are  foreign-born.  Along 
with  this  large  proportion  of  the  poorest  foreign  population  go 
unquestionably  especially  bad  conditions  of  overcrowding,  and 
in  inany  respects  of  sanitary  neglect;  though  such  is  not  the  case 
with  faults  of  housing  construction  pure  and  simple.  Nevertheless 
the  accusation  that  an  unfairly  dark  and  harrowing  picture  has 
been  presented  cannot  justly  be  brought;  since  on  the  one  hand 
many  tenement  houses  of  the  best  type  were  included,  as  is  shown 
by  a  range  of  monthly  rents  between  extremes  of  $17  and  $3  per 
apartment;  while  on  the  other,  large  numbers  of  blocks  as  bad  in 
character  as  any  of  those  investigated  could  be  pointed  out  in  other 
parts  of  the  city.  The  hope  of  furnishing  data  upon  which  a  move- 
ment for  reform  might  safely  base  its  demands  was  the  determin- 
ing incentive  to  the  investigation;  but  this  direct  practical  aim 
has  by  no  means  obscured  the  sociological  and  scientific  interests 
involved.  If  the  results  obtained  shall  on  the  one  hand  be  used 
as  a  point  of  departure  for  social  effort,  and  on  the  other  be  judged 
a  real  though  small  contribution  to  the  literature  of  the  housing 
problem,  the  ends  sought  will  have  been  fully  attained. 


IV.  The  Child  Labor  Problem 


(150 


Child  Labor  Legislation 


By  Mrs.  Florence  Kelley,  Secretary  National  Consumers'  League 


(153) 


CHILD  LABOR  LEGISLATION 


By  Mrs.  Florence  Kelley 
Secretary  National  Consumers'  League 


It  is  most  desirable  that  the  present  widespread  agitation  for 
child  labor  legislation  may  achieve  permanent  results  of  a  uniform 
character.  Such  laws  as  now  exist  are  alike  in  no  two  states;  they 
are  enforced  differently  when  they  are  enforced  at  all;  they  are 
uniform  only  in  their  failure  to  afford  adequate  protection  to  the 
rising  generation  of  the  working-class. 

It  is  the  aim  of  this  paper  to  set  forth  some  essential  points  of 
an  effective  child  labor  law  efficiently  enforced;  for  whatever  the 
local  differences  of  industrial  conditions  may  be,  certain  funda- 
mental needs  of  childhood  are  constant  and  child  labor  legislation 
must  ultimately  be  framed  with  regard  to  these. 

This  fact  is  somewhat  recognized  in  the  statutes  already 
enacted;  for  all  these  begin  with  a  restriction  upon  the  age  at 
which  ths  child  may  begin  to  work.  This  minimal  age  has  varied 
from  ten  years  to  fifteen,  differing  in  some  states  for  boys  and  for 
girls,  while  the  statutes  prescribing  it  have  been  weakened  in  some 
states  by  exemptions  and  strengthened  in  others  by  educational 
requirements.  The  fundamental  provision  of  all  child  labor  legis- 
lation has  always  been  the  prohibition  of  work  before  a  specified 
birthday. 

Akin  to  the  restriction  of  the  age  of  employment  is  the  restric- 
tion of  the  hours  of  work.  The  former  secures  to  the  child  a  fixed 
modicum  of  childhood;  the  latter  assures  to  the  adolescent  certain 
leisure,  all  too  little,  for  growth  and  development. 

No  one  law  can  be  selected  as  containing  all  the  provisions 
needed  or  even  as  containing  all  the  provisions  now  in  force.  It 
is  not  possible  to  say  to  students  of  the  subject,  "  The  law  of  Massa- 
chusetts should  be  copied  every wliere,"  for  the  laws  of  Ohio  and 
Illinois  contain  single  provisions  in  advance  of  that  of  Massachu- 
setts. 

Among  the  best  child  labor  laws  in  the  United  States  are 
those  of  Illinois  and  Indiana,  which  are  almost  identical.  In 
Illinois  no  child  under  the  age  of  fourteen  years  can  be  legally 

(155) 


1 56  The  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 

employed  in  any  mine,  manufacturing  establishment,  factory 
or  workshop,  mercantile  institution,  store,  office,  or  laundry. 
The  Indiana  law  adds,  to  the  foregoing  list,  renovating  works, 
bakeries  and  printing  offices.  This  prohibition  is  absolute  through- 
out the  year,  admitting  no  exemptions  or  exceptions.  Herein 
lies  the  superiority  of  these  laws.  Under  the  New  York  law, 
children  at  work  in  stores  are  exempt  from  restrictions  during  half 
of  December — from  December  15  to  December  31 — and  also 
during  the  vacations  of  the  public  schools,  v/hen  they  may  be 
employed  from  the  age  of  thirteen  years  everywhere  outside  of  the 
factories,  which  happily  they  may  not  enter  before  the  fourteenth 
birthday.  This  exemption  in  New  York  has  been  given  such 
elastic  construction  that  children  have  been  employed  on  Satur- 
days and  even  on  school-days  out  of  school-hours. 

The  laws  of  Illinois  and  Indiana  are  humane;  they  set  the 
highest  age  limit  without  exemptions  yet  attained;  they  are  equi- 
table since  they  place  mine  owners,  manufacturers  and  merchants 
in  the  same  position  in  relation  to  this  particular  source  of  cheap 
labor.  The  employment  of-  children  under  fourteen  years  of  age 
is  prohibited  to  all  three  sets  of  employers  alike. 

Treating  these  laws  as  standard  or  normal,  for  purposes  of 
comparison,  the  law  of  Pennsylvania,  for  instance,  is  seen  to  fall 
below,  because  under  it  children  may  work  in  certain  mines  at 
twelve  years  and  in  factories  at  thirteen  years  of  age ;  while  lowest 
in  the  scale  among  all  the  Northern  and  Middle  states  stands  New 
Jersey,  whose  child  labor  law  permits  boys  to  work  at  twelve  and 
exempts  all  children,  on  grounds  of  poverty,  at  discretion  of  tlie 
factory  inspectors. 

Exemptions. 

From  the  foregoing  brief  statement  it  is  clear  that  the  subject 
of  exemptions  is  a  varied  and  complicated  one.  The  m.ost  insid- 
ious form  of  exemption,  and  therefore  perhaps  the  most  dangerous, 
is  that  prescribed  in  the  law  of  Wisconsin.  Under  it,  no  child  may 
be  employed  under  the  age  of  fourteen  years  in  manufacture  or 
commerce,  unless  it  is  exempted  on  grounds  of  poverty  by  a  judge 
of  a  local  court.  In  practice,  a  judge  has  no  time  to  investigate  the 
economic  condition  of  hundreds  of  families;  hence  he  follows  the 
recommendation    of   the    deputy    factory    inspector.     This    over- 


Child  Labor  Legislation  1 57 

worked  officer  is  drawn  away  from  his  proper  duties  to  perform  an 
economic  investigation  for  which  he  possesses  no  especial  fitness. 
His  own  work  suffers.  Children  are  exempted  from  school  attend- 
ance and  permitted  to  work,  who  more  than  any  other  children  in 
the  community  need  education  because  of  the  poverty  or  shiftless- 
ness  of  their  parents.  Too  often,  drunken  fathers  are  encouraged 
to  further  drunkenness  because  their  young  children,  under  exemp- 
tion, are  earning  money  which  the  parents  spend.  Finally,  this 
exemption  rests  upon  the  pernicious  principle  that  a  young  child 
under  fourteen  years  of  age  may  be  burdened  with  the  support  of 
itself  or  its  family. 

It  is  not  a  legitimate  function  of  the  judiciary  to  investigate 
the  poverty  of  individual  families.  It  is  not  a  legitimate  function 
of  the  factory  inspectors  to  investigate  family  life.  Both  officers 
are  interrupted  in  the  performance  of  their  legitimate  duties  by 
every  attempt  to  perform  this  alien  task.  Moreover,  children  under 
fourteen  years  of  age  are  undesirable  additions  to  the  body  of  wage- 
earners,  pressing  by  their  competition  upon  the  wages  of  their 
seniors  and  therefore  tending  to  produce  in  other  families  the  same 
poverty  which  serves  as  a  pretext  for  their  own  exemption.  The 
number  of  exempted  children,  under  such  a  provision,  tends  to 
increase  continuously,  because  greedy  and  pauperized  parents  are 
tempted  to  follow  the  example  of  the  really  needy,  in  urging  appli- 
cations for  exemptions. 

Kein^orcanents. 

Besides  being  free  from  all  the  undermining  effects  of  exemp- 
tion clauses,  the  child  labor  laws  of  IlHnois  and  Indiana  profit  by 
several  reinforcing  clauses.  Chief  among  these  is  the  requirement 
that  children  under  sixteen  years  and  over  fourteen  years  must 
keep  on  file  in  the  office  of  the  place  of  employment  an  affidavit  of 
the  parent  or  guardian,  stating  the  date  and  place  of  birth  of  the 
child.  In  Indiana,  this  must  state  also  that  the  child  can  read  and 
write  the  English  language.  While  some  parents  are  undoubtedly 
guilty  of  perjury,  and  others  carelessly  take  the  oath  perfunctor- 
ily administered  by  a  notary  public,  thousands  of  honest  people 
are  deterred  by  the  requirement  of  the  affidavit  from  sending  their 
children  to  work  before  reaching  the  fourteenth  birthday. 


158  The  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 

Employers  must  produce,  on  demand  of  factory  inspectors, 
affidavits  for  all  children  under  sixteen  years  of  age  in  their  employ. 
The  penalty  prescribed  for  failure  to  do  this  is  the  same  as  for 
employing  a  child  under  the  age  of  fourteen  years.  The  value  of 
this  provision  for  the  protection  of  the  children  depends  wholly 
upon  the  policy  of  the  inspectors.  If  every  failure  to  produce  the 
affidavit  is  followed  by  immediate  prosecution,  manufacturers 
become  extremely  cautious  about  employing  young  children; 
children  under  fourteen  years  of  age  virtually  cease  to  be  employed; 
and  the  number  of  those  employed  under  sixteen  years  of  age 
diminishes  because  many  employers  refuse  to  be  troubled  with 
affidavits,  inspections  and  prosecutions.  On  the  other  hand,  em- 
ployers of  large  numbers  of  children  find  it  profitable  to  make  one 
clerk  responsible  for  the  presence  in  the  office  of  an  affidavit  for 
every  child  between  the  ages  of  fourteen  and  sixteen  years.  In 
these  cases,  the  children  who  have  affidavits  acquire  a  slight 
added  value,  are  somewhat  less  likely  to  be  dismissed  for  trifling 
reasons,  and  become  somewhat  more  stable  in  their  employment. 

Where,  however,  inspectors  fear  to  prosecute  systematically, 
lest  they  be  removed  from  office,  the  provision  requiring  an  affidavit 
to  be  produced  by  the  employer,  on  demand  of  an  inspector,  is  not 
rigorously  enforced ;  children  soon  come  to  be  employed  upon  their 
verbal  assurance  that  they  are  fourteen  years  of  age,  and  the  pro- 
tection which  might  be  derived  from  this  very  useful  reinforcing 
clause  is  lost  for  the  children  under  fourteen  years  of  age,  as  well  as 
for  the  older  ones. 

A  farther  reinforcement  of  the  prohibition  of  employment  of 
children  under  fourteen  years  of  age  is  the  authority  conferred  by 
the  Illinois  law  upon  inspectors  to  demand  a  certificate  of  physical 
fitness  for  children  who  may  seem  unfit  for  their  work.  This  pro- 
vision enforced  with  energy  and  discretion  can  be  made,  in  the  case 
of  children  conspicuously  undersized,  largely  to  counteract  the 
tendency  to  perjury  on  the  part  of  parents,  besides  relieving  healthy 
children  from  overstrain  of  many  kinds.  The  difficulties  encoun- 
tered are  chiefly  two : — physicians  grant  certificates  without  visiting 
the  place  of  employment.  This  occurs  quite  uniformly  to  the  dis- 
grace of  the  profession.  Physicians  also  grant  certificates,  in  many 
cases,  without  careful  examination  of  eyes,  heart,  lungs  and  spinal 
column  of  the  child,  simply  upon  the  parent's  statement  of  pov- 


Child  Labor  Legislation  159 

erty.  To  make  this  reinforcement  thoroughly  effective,  every 
factory  inspection  staff  should  include  a  physician,  preferably  two, 
a  man  and  a  woman,  appointed  expressly  to  follow  up  the  children 
and  the  conditions  under  which  they  work. 

Educational  Tests^ 

Several  states  require  that  children  under  sixteen  years  of  age 
must  be  able  to  read  and  write  simple  sentences  in  the  English 
language  before  being  employed.  This  is  of  the  highest  value  in 
those  states  which  receive  large  streams  of  immigration  from 
Europe.  In  New  York,  every  year,  numbers  of  children  are  dis- 
missed from  factories  by  order  of  factory  inspectors,  because  the 
children  cannot  read;  while  in  Massachusetts,  French  Canadian 
children  find  school  attendance  at  a  high  premium  because  of  the 
difficulty  of  securing  employment  without  it.  The  influence  of 
the  foreign  voting  constituency  has  defeated  in  several  states,  for 
several  years  past,  the  effort  to  secure  a  statutory  requirement  of 
ability  to  read  and  write  English,  or  a  specified  attendance  at 
school,  as  a  prerequisite  for  work  on  the  part  of  children  under 
sixteen  years  of  age.  This  is  conspicuously  true  of  Illinois,  where 
such  a  provision  was  defeated  in  the  legislatures  of  1893,  1895  and 
1897. 

The  most  powerful  reinforcement  of  the  child  labor  law  is  a 
compulsory  school  attendance  law  effectively  enforced.  For  want 
of  this,  the  child  labor  law  of  Illinois  suffers  severely.  The  school 
attendance  law  requires  children  between  the  ages  of  eight  and 
fourteen  years  to  attend  school  sixteen  weeks,  of  which  twelve  must 
be  consecutive.  Children  under  ten  years  of  age  must  enter  school 
in  September,  children  under  twelve  years  must  enter  school  not 
later  than  New  Year's.  Meagre  as  these  provisions  are,  they  are 
not  uniformly  and  effectively  enforced  by  the  local  school  boards; 
and  the  state  factory  inspectors  are  therefore  burdened  with  fre- 
quent prosecutions  of  employers  because  children  under  fourteen 
years  of  age  are  sent  to  work  by  parents  who  should  be  rigorously 
prosecuted  by  the  school  attendance  officers. 

In  Indiana,  the  reinforcement  afforded  by  the  state  truancy 
law  is  of  great  value,  for  children  must  attend  school  to  the  age  of 
fourteen  years,  throughout  the  term  of  the  school  district  in  which 


i6o  The  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 

they  live,  generous  provision  being  made  for  truant  officers.  This 
difference  accounts,  perhaps,  for  the  fact  that  Indiana  has  but  three 
and  one-half  thousand  children  under  the  age  of  sixteen  years  at 
work,  compared  with  nineteen  thousand  such  children  in  Illinois; 
and  this  despite  the  rapid  development  of  the  "Gas  Belt"  in  In- 
diana, where  the  temptation  is  very  great  for  parents  to  put  excess- 
ively young  children  to  work  with  the  help  of  perjured  affidavits. 
Truant  officers,  watching  young  children,  from  the  eighth  to  the 
fourteenth  birthday,  every  day  of  the  school  term,  are  the  best 
preventive  alike  of  perjury  by  parents  and  of  child  labor.  They 
constitute  the  best  possible  reinforcement  of  the  child  labor  law. 

The  contrasted  practice  of  the  neighboring  states  of  Indiana 
and  Illinois,  in  this  respect,  is  so  marked  that,  unless  the  policy  of 
Illinois  be  radically  changed  in  the  near  future,  it  is  reasonable  to 
expect  that,  despite  the  excellent  child  labor  law,  the  number  of 
children  at  work  under  the  age  of  sixteen  years  must  continue  to 
double  at  intervals  of  five  years,  as  it  has  done  in  the  past — the 
recruits  being  largely  drawn  from  the  ranks  of  the  children  under 
the  legal  age  for  work. 

In  Boston,  the  very  enlightened  firm  of  merchants  known  as 
Filene's  have  long  made  it  a  rule  to  employ  no  person  who  is  not  a 
graduate  of  the  grammar  grades  of  the  public  schools.  In  two 
cases  known  to  the  writer,  girls  aged  respectively  eighteen  and  six- 
teen years  applied  for  work,  but  were  not  engaged  because  they  had 
not  completed  the  school  requirement.  They  found  employment 
elsewhere  while  attending  the  graded  evening  schools  of  Boston  in 
preparation  for  service  at  Filene's.  It  is  reasonable  to  expect  that 
this  method  of  securing  efficient  help  will  be  increasingly  followed 
by  public-spirited  employers  interested  in  placing  a  premium  upon 
school  attendance,  until  at  last  legislators  may  feel  justified  in 
specifying  some  one  grade  of  the  schools  below  which  the  pupil 
may  not  leave  to  begin  working. 

The  Hours  of  Labor. 

Among  the  most  advanced  restrictions  upon  the  hours  of  labor 
of  children  is  that  of  New  Jersey,  which  prohibits  all  persons,  men, 
women  and  children,  alike,  from  working  in  manufacturing  estab- 
lishments longer  than  fifty-five  (55)  hours  in  any  week,  or  after  one 


Child  Labor  Legislation  i6i 

o'clock  on  Saturday.  This  provision  applies  throughout  the  year. 
Massachusetts  and  Rliode  Island  prohibit  the  employment  of 
women  of  any  age  and  of  youths  under  eighteen  years,  longer  than 
fifty-eight  hours  in  any  week,  or  ten  hours  in  one  day,  or  after  nine 
at  night  or  before  six  in  the  morning. 

These  laws  have  the  advantage  of  precision.  They  require 
that  the  hours  of  work  of  the  persons  concerned  must  be  posted 
conspicuously,  and  that  the  posted  hours  shall  constitute  the  work- 
ing day — work  beyond  the  posted  hours  constituting  a  violation  of 
the  law — thus  rendering  the  enforcement  of  the  law  simple  and 
easy. 

The  statute  of  Utah  prohibits  all  persons  from  working  in 
mines,  smelters  and  factories  longer  than  eight  hours  in  one  day 
and  forty-eight  hours  in  one  week.  This  statute  has  been  sustained 
by  the  Supreme  Court  at  Washington,  in  the  decision  in  the  case  of 
Holden  vs.  Hardy,  1896.  It  does  not,  at  present,  afEect  any  con- 
siderable number  of  children,  because  child  labor  hardly  exists  in 
Utah.  But  with  the  development  of  manufacture,  now  pro- 
ceeding with  startling  rapidity,  the  value  of  this  enlightened  law 
for  the  children  who  must  inevitably  find  employment  is  quite 
beyond  computation.  And  as  a  precedent  for  similar  legislation 
elsewhere,  this  statute  and  the  extremely  strong  decision  of  the 
Supreme  Court  at  Washington  sustaining  the  validity  of  the  statute 
are  of  epoch-making  importance. 

Night  Work  of  Children. 

The  extent  to  which  children  are  employed  at  night  is  not  gen- 
erally recognized.  In  any  state  in  which  such  employment  is  not 
explicitly  prohibited,  it  is  very  general  in  all  branches  of  industry 
in  which  children  are  employed  by  day.  Glassworks,  nut  and  bolt 
works,  tin  can  factories,  furniture  factories,  cutleries,  and  scores  of 
miscellaneous  industries  employ  boys  regularly  at  night.  Girls 
are  regularly  employed  in  garment  and  candy  factories  during  the 
busy  season ;  and  in  some  factories  this  work  continues  all  through 
the  year,  as  in  the  cotton  mills  of  Georgia,  Alabama  and  the  Caro- 
linas.  Wherever  the  prohibition  is  not  explicit  and  sweeping,  the 
night  work  of  children  is  the  rule,  not  the  exception.  In  Illinois 
and  Indiana  boys  are  not  prohibited  from  working  at  night,  and  are 


1 62  The  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 

regularly  employed  in  the  glassworks  in  both  states  under  circum- 
stances of  great  hardship.  In  Indiana,  girls  are  forbidden  to  work 
after  ten  o'clock;  but  Illinois,  cruelly  belated  in  this  respect,  merely 
restricts  the  work  of  children  under  sixteen  years  of  age  to  sixty 
hours  in  any  week,  and  ten  hours  in  one  day,  failing  to  proscribe 
night  work  even  for  girls.  It  is,  accordingly,  very  common.  Even 
in  Boston,  where  the  hours  of  labor  of  boys  under  eighteen  years 
engaged  in  manufacture  and  other  forms  of  commerce  are  strictly 
limited,  a  recent  attempt  to  pass  an  ordinance  requiring  that  news- 
boys under  fourteen  years  of  age  shall  not  sell  papers  on  the  streets 
after  eight  o'clock  at  night  failed  utterly,  and  small  boys  are  to  be 
seen  upon  the  streets  at  all  hours.  The  place  of  honor  in  the  matter 
of  legislation  prohibiting  night  work  for  children  properly  belongs 
to  Ohio,  which  provides  that  minors  under  eighteen  years  of  age, 
may  not  be  employed  after  seven  o'clock  at  night. 

Children  Not  Yet  Protected. 

Large  numbers  of  working  children  remain  wholly  unprotected 
by  legislation.  Not  only  have  the  four  great  cotton -manufacturing 
states,  Georgia,  Alabama  and  the  Carolinas,  defeated  all  bills  pre- 
sented to  their  legislatures  for  the  purpose  of  protecting  young 
children,  but  in  the  North,  also,  newsboys,  bootblacks,  peddlers, 
vendors  and  the  thousands  of  children  employed  in  the  tenement 
houses  of  New  York  and  Chicago,  and  in  the  sweat-shops  of  Phila- 
delphia, remain  wholly  outside  of  the  law's  protection,  so  far  as 
statutory  regulation  of  the  conditions  of  their  work  is  concerned. 
The  problem  of  abolishing  the  overwork  of  school  children  in  tene- 
ment houses,  under  the  sweating  system,  appears  at  present  insolu- 
ble except  by  a  prohibition  of  all  tenement-house  work. 

Enforcement. 

To  secure  the  enforcement  of  child-labor  legislation,  there  are 
needed  factory  inspectors,  both  men  and  women,  equipped  with 
ample  powers  and  supplied  with  adequate  funds  for  traveling  and 
other  expenses.  These  inspectors  need  good  general  education, 
long  experience,  and  vigorous  public  opinion  reinforcing  their 
efforts.     Massachusetts  enjoys  the  unique  distinction,  among  the 


CJiild  Labor  Legislation  163 

American  states,  of  possessing  a  large  staff  of  factory  inspectors 
meeting  all  these  requirements;  and  Massachusetts  is,  accordingly, 
the  only  state  of  which  it  may  be  confidently  asserted  that  its  child 
labor  law  is  uniformly  and  efifectively  enforced  at  all  times  and  in  all 
its  provisions.  A  faithful  officer  serving  a  full  quarter-century  at 
the  head  of  the  department,  with  subordinates  equally  assured  of 
permanent  tenure  of  ofifice  during  good  behavior,  has  been  able 
fearlessly  and  intelligently  to  enforce  the  laws  securing  to  the 
children  of  Massachusetts  fourteen  full  years  of  childhood,  with 
opportunity  for  school  life,  followed  by  safety  of  life,  limb  and 
health  after  entering  upon  the  years  of  work. 

In  all  the  other  states  it  is  extremely  difficult  for  an  inspector 
who  faithfully  enforces  the  law  to  retain  his  position.  The  inter- 
ests which  oppose  such  legislation  and  object  to  its  enforcement, 
are  enormously  powerful  and  are  thoroughly  organized.  The 
people  who  procure  the  enactment  of  child  labor  laws  are  usually 
working  people  unacquainted  with  the  technical  details  of  the  work 
of  inspection;  busy  in  the  effort  to  earn  their  own  living;  not  able 
to  keep  vigilant  watch  upon  the  work  of  the  inspectors,  the  creation 
of  whose  office  they  achieve.  Thus  the  officials  are  subjected  to 
pressure  in  one  direction  only.  If  they  are  idly  passive,  they  rnay 
be  allowed  to  vegetate  in  office  several  years.  If  they  are  aggress- 
ively faithful  to  the  oath  of  office,  enforcing  the  law  by  prosecuting 
offenders  against  its  provisions,  the  children  who  profit  by  this  are 
unable  to  reward  their  benefactors;  the  working  people  who  ob- 
tained the  creation  of  the  office  have  no  arts  of  bringing  pressure 
to  bear  effectively  to  reward  faithfulness  in  public  service  by 
appointed  officers;  while  the  offending  employers  are  amply  able 
to  punish  what  they  decry  as  officious  overactivity,  if  they  do  not 
go  farther  and  charge  persecution  and  blackmail.  For  these 
reasons  it  may  almost  be  stated  as  a  general  proposition  that  the 
more  lax  the  officer,  the  longer  his  term  of  office ;  and  the  history 
of  the  departments  of  factory  inspection,  the  country  over,  sadly 
substantiates  the  statement. 

The  recent  startling  revelations  of  non-enforcement  of  the  laws 
intended  to  protect  young  children  from  exhausting  overwork  in 
the  glass  factories  in  New  Jersey  merely  intimate  what  will  be  found 
true  in  every  state  in  which  there  is  not  a  powerfully  organized, 
compact  body  of  public  opinion  alert  to  insist  upon  the  retention 


164  The  Afvials  of  the  Amaicaii  Academy 

of  competent  officers,  the  removal  of  incompetent  ones,  and  the 
uniform,  consistent  enforcement  of  all  the  provisions  of  the  child 
labor  laws. 

To  form  in  every  state,  among  the  purchasers  of  the  products 
of  manufacture,  a  body  of  alert,  enlightened  public  opinion,  keen  to 
watch  the  officers  to  whom  is  entrusted  the  dut}^  of  enforcing  child 
labor  laws,  rewarding  with  support  and  appreciation  faithful 
officials  and  calling  attention  to  derelictions  from  duty  on  the  part 
of  the  mere  politicians  among  them,  this  is  an  important  part  of  the 
duty  of  the  National  Consumers'  League. 


Child  Labor  in  the  Department  Store 


By  Franklin  N.  Brewer,  General  Manager  Wanamaker  Store, 

Philadelphia 


(165) 


CHILD  LABOR  IN  THE   DEPARTMENT  STORE 


By  Franklin  N.  Brewer 
General  Manager  Wanamaker  Store,  Philadelphia 


The  topic  assigned  me,  "Child  Labor  in  (so-called)  Depart- 
ment Stores,"  interests  us,  I  take  it,  from  but  one  point  of  view: 
that  of  the  education  and  development  of  the  child  into  the  man 
or  woman  who  shall  contribute  and  receive  a  normal  share  of  the 
world's  good  growth  in  life,  liberty  and  happiness. 

I  cannot  claim  comprehensive  thought  or  research,  under  this 
topic,  and  my  paper  must  be  the  brief  and  superficial  one  of  a  man 
whose  too  short  days  are  full  of  the  work  of  the  builder  rather  than 
the  study  of  the  architect. 

If  my  coming  before  you  is  justified  at  all,  it  must  be  by  the 
simple  statement  I  am  able  to  make  of  how  one  establishment,*  a 
typical  one  of  the  class  under  consideration,  is  trying  to  meet  its 
responsibility  for  its  children. 

First  entrance  into  the  employ  of  this  house  is,  to  the  extent 
possible,  with  a  clear  understanding  between  parent,  or  guardian, 
and  the  employer,  that  the  child's  business  career  shall  continue 
with  the  same  house,  at  least  until  maturity  in  years  and  efficiency 
in  some  distinct  branch  of  the  business  shall  have  been  reached. 

Following  our  State  law,  thirteen  years  is  the  minimum  age. 
The  smaller  boys  begin  as  "cash  boys."  Girls  are  not  given  this 
work,  positions  of  less  freedom  being  considered  safer  for  them. 
The  girls  up  to,  usually,  seventeen  years  of  age,  and  the  boys,  other 
than  cash  boys,  usually,  from  sixteen  to  eighteen,  are  engaged 
directly  in  the  general  corps  of  the  junior  employees — we  call  it 
"The  Cadet  Corps" — and  into  this  corps  the  cash  boys  come  by 
promotion.  Except  at  Christmas,  the  cash  boys  will  average  two 
hundred  in  number;  the  cadets  four  hundred,  of  whom  about  one 
hundred  are  girls.  These  six  hundred  young  people  are  assigned 
to  duty  in  the  various  departments  and  divisions  of  the  business, 
according  to  natural  aptitude  and  fitness,  and  are  under  the  direc- 
tion of  their  respective  department  or  section  heads;  but  always, 
also,  and  until  graduation  from  the  Cadet  Corps,  they  are  under 

1  John  Wanamaker's  Store,  of  which  Mr.  Brewer  is  General  Manager  [Editor]. 

(167) 


1 68  TJie  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 

the  care  and  discipline  of  the  chief  of  the  corps  and  a  lady  assistant. 
The  young  people  are  not  lost  sight  of  individually,  but  are  known 
and  studied  by  the  managers  with  view  to  advancement  according 
to  capacity  and  natural  abilities. 

Cultivation  of  good  manners,  neatness,  elevated  personal 
habits,  the  general  requirements  of  the  store  service,  lessons 
from  their  individual  experiences,  etc.,  are  considered  with  them 
individually  and  at  general  meetings,  and  are  emphasized  by  a 
system  of  monthly  averages  bearing  upon  questions  of  promo- 
tion and  increase  of  salary.  To  illustrate:  Each  of  the  smaller 
boys  (the  cash  boys)  has  his  record  card  which  he  must  carry 
for  a  month.  It  is  no  small  departure  from  small-boy  nature, 
simply  to  have  and  hold  this  card  during  a  month  without  a 
forbidden  accumulation  of  dirt  and  damage  upon  it.  One  of 
the  early  signs  of  progress,  after  the  adoption  of  this  feature  of 
our  plan,  was  an  increased  average  whiteness  and  remaining 
area  in  the  cards  surrendered  at  the  month's  end.  This  card 
epitomizes  the  boy's  early  business  life  and  he  reverences  it  and 
guards  it.  On  one  side  are  rules  to  be  committed  to  memory,  but 
this  is  merely  incidental.  The  other  is  the  serious  side,  where  an 
array  of  spaces  gradually  fill  up,  like  the  rising  of  the  tide.  Weekly 
ratings  by  his  section  manager  for  neatness,  promptness,  truthful- 
ness, etc.;  a  w^eekly  rating  at  morning  "inspection,"  by  his  general 
chief;  daily  strokes  of  the  pencil  (if  occasion  require)  for  miscon- 
duct or  neglect  of  duty — "bluies"  the  boys  call  these  latter  marks 
and  there  is  no  levity  or  disrespect  in  the  term.  Protest  against 
what  is  felt  to  be  an  undeserved  "bluie"  is  made  to  his  chief,  or 
even  to  the  general  manager,  with  all  the  earnestness  of  an  appeal 
to  the  Supreme  Court,  and,  needless  to  say,  such  appeals  are 
patiently  entertained  and  decided  with  honest  effort  after  justice. 
Upon  these  cards,  also,  are  entered  the  monthly  figures  given  for 
the  boys'  school-work.  The  average  of  all  the  ratings  is  the  "store 
average"  and  the  misconduct  marks  ("bluies")  reckon  so  much 
off.  The  card  goes  home  for  inspection  and  signing  by  parent 
or  guardian.  Upon  the  "store  average"  depend  increase  of 
salary  and  promotion.  If  advance  in  salary  is  not  won  reasonably 
soon  (six  weeks  or  two  months  usually  bring  the  first  upward 
step)  the  conclusion  is  apt  to  be  reached  that  the  boy  is  unfitted 
for  our  service  and  he  is  dropped  from  the  ranks.  The  simple 
expedient  of  these  cards,  and  that  which  they  represent,  secures 


Child  Labor  in  the  Department  Store  169 

in  discipline  what  the  harsh  word  and  impulsive  discharge  never 
could  secure,  and  a  month  or  two  bring  about  in  tlie  little  "raw 
recruit  "  a  surprising  improvement. 

I  mention  these  details  as  illustrative  of  the  spirit,  character 
and  thoroughness  with  which,  to  the  best  of  our  ability,  the  prob- 
lems of  the  discipline  and  development  of  our  young  people  are 
met,  along  their  whole  course  from  first  entrance  into  the  business 
up  to  graduation  into  the  ranks  of  men  and  women.  And  this 
line  of  procedure  is  simple  recognition  of  the  fact  that  these  are 
children  still,  whose  characters  are  forming,  and  that  faults  and 
defects,  which  in  man  or  woman  might  require  discharge,  in  the 
child  simply  demand  correction. 

The  boys  above  the  cash  boy  grade,  and  the  girls,  are  placed, 
as  early  as  wisely  possible  (depending  upon  their  own  developing 
tendencies  and  the  business  conditions),  where  some  distinct 
branch  of  the  business,  or  class  of  merchandise,  will  be  learned 
thoroughly.  Stock  boy,  Salesman,  stock-head,  buyer's  assistant, 
is  the  usual  line  of  advancement  in  merchandising.  Development 
in  clerical  lines  makes  the  bookkeeper,  the  auditor,  the  office  as- 
sistant, the  stenographer.  In  trades  lines  grow  up  among  us,  the 
milliner,  the  dressmaker,  the  paper  shade  and  flower  worker,  the 
plate  engraver  and  printer,  the  designer,  draughtsman,  decorator, 
show-card  painter,  the  mechanic  in  repair  of  bicycles,  dolls,  and  so 
on.  Exceedingly  numerous  and  varied  are  the  paths  open,  and  in 
so  far  as  possible  an  early  and  definite  selection  and  patient  reason- 
able progress  along  some  one  of  these  paths  are  insisted  upon. 
Meanwhile  salaries  are '  advanced  systematically  according  to  a 
minimum  scale  which  is  increased  as  progress  above  the  average 
and  promotion  to  higher  duties  may  mark  the  course  of  the  indi- 
vidual. 

Does  the  program,  thus  far,  -  sound  too  serious  and  strict 
for  normal  happiness  and  hopefulness  in  the  children?  See  our 
young  people  and  you  will  find  the  reverse  to  be  true.  Granted 
a  child,  normal  in  body  and  mind,  happily  busy  and  interested  in 
duties  of  genuine  importance  to  and  among  other  busy  people, 
and  the  question  of  training  in  the  business  proper  answers  itself: 
the  child  learns,  absorbs,  grows  by  the  easy  process  of  nature.  His 
capital  knowledge,  as  a  business  man,  becomes  to  him  like  the  mud 
on  the  carpet  at  Willie's  home:  "I  didn't  bring  it  into  the  house, 
mamma;  it  just  stuck  to  my  shoes  and  came  in  itself."     But  the 


170  The  Annals  of  the  Ainerican  Academy 

youthful  business  students  of  to-day  require  for  normal  develop- 
ment more  than  the  round  of  duty  of  a  succession  of  business  days 
in  a  fixed  place  can  supply,  and  more  than  the  average  home  and 
home  circle  of  friends  and  interests  of  the  working  boy  or  girl  do 
supply. 

And  so  we  have  found  it  practicable  to  bring  into  the  business 
lives  of  our  young  people  most  of  the  activities  usual  in  the  schools. 
The  smaller  boys  are  organized  into  school  and  military  companies. 
Each  company  assembles  in  the  school-rooms,  on  the  fifth  floor  of 
the  store  building,  two  mornings  in  the  week,  where  regular  in- 
struction is  given  in  arithmetic,  grammar,  spelling,  writing,  com- 
position and  singing.  On  two  other  mornings  they  have  the  set- 
ting-up exercises  and  drill  of  the  school  of  the  soldier,  with  some 
other  physical  culture  features.  The  boys  elect  their  own  military 
officers,  save,  of  course,  their  chief,  and  these  officers  become  suc- 
cessful disciplinarian,  sretaining  well  the  respect  and  obedience  of 
their  companies.  A  very  successful  fife,  bugle  and  drum  corps, 
composed  of  the  boys  themselves,  is  a  feature  of  this  branch  of 
their  organization.  As  fairly  indicating  the  standard  of  these 
special  activities,  let  me  mention  here  that  this  fife,  bugle  and 
drum  corps  has  twice  marched  at  the  head  of  the  combined  Boys' 
Brigades  of  Philadelphia,  and  has  been  pronounced  the  best  junior 
organization  of  the  sort  in  the  city. 

Our  girls  have  their  school  organization,  also,  each  division 
having  two  mornings  in  the  week.  The  branches  taught  are  those 
above  mentioned  and  also  business  correspondence,  stenography 
and  typewriting,  and  bookkeeping.  Attention  is  given  to  singing 
and  physical  culture,  while  an  elocution  class  and  a  mandolin  club 
are  successful  outgrowths  of  this  branch  of  the  store  school. 

The  older  boys,  in  number  about  three  hundred,  have  supper 
in  the  store  and  remain  for  their  school,  two  evenings  in  a  week. 
The  branches  taught  are  arithmetic,  spelling,  writing,  commercial 
correspondence,  EngHsh,  stenography,  bookkeeping,  metric  system, 
mechanical  and  free-hand  drawing,  rapid  calculation.  Military 
and  gymnastic  training  are  given,  and  as  outgrowths  of  the  school 
are  a  club  for  debate  and  literary  exercises,  an  orchestra,  a  field 
music  band,  a  mandolin  club,  a  glee  club,  an  elocution  and 
dramatic  class,  and  a  minstrel  troupe.  jNIonthly  report  of  the 
standing  and  progress  of  each  pupil  is  made  to  the  parents. 

Each  of  these  three  branches  of  the  store  school  has  its  sepa- 


Child  Labor  in  the  Department  Store  171 

rate  annual  commencement  exercises  conducted  similarly  to  those 
of  other  schools  and  not  falling  below  the  latter  in  general  merit. 
Association  Hall  has  been  used  in  later  years  for  this  purpose,  but 
is  now  much  too  small  for  the  gathering  of  the  parents  and  friends 
interested.  Certificates  (they  call  them  diplomas)  are  given  to  the 
graduates,  but  these  papers  have  double  significance.  They  testify 
to  the  attainment  of  a  certain  standard  in  the  school-work  proper 
and  also  to  the  actual  nuinber  of  years  of  satisfactory  service  in  the 
business,  with  promotion  from  the  Cadet  Corps  to  a  position  in  the 
regular  ranks  of  some  one  of  the  store  departments — equivalent 
to  a  stepping  out  of  the  ranks  of  the  business  boy  or  girl  into  those 
of  the  business  man  or  woman. 

These  graduates  have  organized  themselves  into  Alumni  and 
Alumnae  Associations  and  maintain  their  fellowship,  principally 
in  social,  but  partly  in  educative  work.  The  school  button  or  pin 
and  the  alumni  pin  prove  that  these  young  folks  are  quite  as  human 
as  those  of  other  schools  and  colleges.  The  standard  of  class-work 
done,  while  perhaps  less  in  quantity  for  the  same  length  of  time, 
does  not,  in  quality,  seem  to  fall  below  the  standard  of  other 
schools.  The  business  training,  the  business  authority  and  the 
fact  that  excellence  in  school-work  is  also  an  important  element  in 
business  promotion,  all  give  the  teacher  an  advantage,  and  the 
scholar  an  incentive  greater  than  in  ordinary  schools,  and  these 
substantially  offset  the  disadvantage  of  shorter  class-hours.  With 
justifiable  pride  we  call  the  schools,  collectively,  the  "J.  W.  C.  I.," 
"John  Wanamaker  Commercial  Institute."  The  "Junior  Savings 
Fund"  is  another  feature  of  the  young  people's  organizations  of 
the  store,  largely  taken  advantage  of  and  helpfully  stimulating 
to  habits  of  care  with  money.  A  summer  camp,  the  outfit  for 
which  is  owned  by  the  boys,  provides  for  the  vacation  of  many. 

The  results  are  very  manifest."  Jacob  Riis  says,  "the  small 
boy  is  a  boiler  with  steam  up  all  the  time,  and  if  authority  sits  on 
the  safety-valve  there  is  bound  to  be  an  explosion."  We  have  but 
few  explosions.  There  is  so  much  of  varied  and  interesting  demand 
upon  his  activities  that  our  future  business  man  has  but  little  time 
to  scheme  out  mischief  and  practically  no  surplus  steam  to  explode. 
The  incentive  to  faithful  doing  of  his  best  is  strong.  Participation 
in  the  actual  work  of  the  business  daily  is  the  broadest  end  of  school- 
work.  Beginning  early  and  with  awakening  interest  and  ambi- 
tion, the  children  are  in  less  danger  of   developing  wrong   habits. 


172  The  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 

temptation  to  dishonesty,  a  sullen  or  resistful  spirit  toward  those 
in  control,  and  many  another  cause  by  which  a  naturally  well- 
equipped  child  fails  to  fulfill  the  promise  of  his  childhood. 

While  children  here  are  children  still,  yet  I  know  not  of  an  equal 
number  of  young  people  gathered  together  with  an  equal  standard 
in  present  character  and  ability  and  promise  of  future  success  and 
usefulness.  As  would  be  supposed,  such  care  in  the  early  training 
of  the  young  people  necessarily  and  naturally  carries  with  it  the 
advancing  of  these  people  as  the  years  go  on,  so  that  what  is  prac- 
tically a  system  of  civil  service  promotion  has  resulted,  and  the 
higher  positions  are  continually  filling  with  those  who  have  grown 
up  in  the  business  from  childhood. 

To  be  sure,  it  often  happens  that  a  young  man,  having  made 
himself  fit  for  a  larger  position  than  is  open  to  him  at  the  time  in 
this  his  business  home,  goes  out  with  our  approval  to  some  other 
establishment  which  needs  a  chief  and  bids  for  him,  but,  on  the 
other  hand,  it  is  true  that  no  young  man  or  woman,  having  won 
a  foothold  in  the  regular  store  service  and  continuing  faithfully  to 
do  his  or  her  best,  need  look  elsewhere  for  advancement  or  a  busi- 
ness future. 

Sometimes  these  changes  to  other  service  are  invited  before  we 
think  the  young  man  or  woman  fully  qualified,  and  in  any  case 
much  is  risked  in  the  search  elsewhere  for  sudden  and  uncertain 
advancement. 

From  these  conditions  develop  three  important  features  of 
modern  business  life:  First:  A  fair  equivalent  for  the  apprentice 
system  still  so  strong  in  the  Old  World,  and  for  want  of  which  our 
young  business  men  and  mechanics  have  suffered  in  comparison 
with  Old  World  competitors,  in  point  of  thoroughness  and  detail 
knowledge;  second:  civil  service  promotion;  and  third:  service 
and  disability  pension. 

May  I  presume  further  upon  your  patience  with  an  additional 
question  or  two  ?  Are  we  prepared  to  say  that  better  results  than 
these  I  have  tried  to  indicate  are  observable  in  those  trained  solely 
in  academic  courses?  It  is  too  large  a  question  for  me  to  attempt 
to  answer.  An  answer  is,  however,  suggested  by  R.  T.  Crane  in  a 
pamphlet  issued  in  1901  in  Chicago,  entitled  "An  Investigation 
as  to  the  Utility  of  Academic  Education  for  Young  Men  Who  Have 
to  Earn  Their  Own  Living  and  Who  Expect  to  Pursue  a  Commercial 
Life."     Mr.  Crane  comes,  among  other  conclusions,  to  this:  "The 


Child  Labor  in  the  Dcpartvicnt  Store  173 

truth  of  the  matter  is  that,  when  it  comes  to  considering  an  appH- 
cant  for  a  position,  few  of  these  gentlemen  (employers  in  various 
lines)  will  be  found  to  pay  any  attention  to  the  amount  of  knowl- 
edge he  may  have  of  Greek,  Latin,  literature,  etc.,  or  care  a  straw 
about  the  mental  drill  and  discipline  or  the  well-rounded  character 
that  he  may  have  acquired  through  a  course  at  college.  What 
they  are  particularly  interested  in  knowing  is  whether  he  under- 
stands their  business  and  can  promote  it.  This  is  all  that  has  any 
weight  with  them  in  the  selection  of  help." 

And  further,  "The  great  majority  of  our  strongest  and  most 
successful  men  in  the  country  to-day  came  from  farms  and  villages 
and  obtained  very  little  education.  ...  In  my  opinion,  few 
of  them  would  have  been  anywhere  near  so  successful  in  business 
had  they  gone  to  college,  for  their  success  was  largely  due  to  the 
fact,  which  was  impressed  upon  them  in  the  early  part  of  their 
career,  that  they  would  have  to  struggle  if  they  expected  to 
succeed. 

"  I  feel  quite  sure  that  if  the  men  who  have  bean  successful  in 
business  were  asked  whether  they  regretted  starting  in  business  at 
the  time  they  did,  in  place  of  going  to  college  and  taking  the  chances 
of  afterward  being  able  to  gain  the  success  which  they  have 
achieved,  all  would  answer  in  the  negative.  ...  I  think,  it 
can  be  safely  said  that  the  great  men  at  the  head  of  our  railroads 
are  the  strongest  business  men  the  world  has  ever  produced,  and 
so  far  as  I  have  been  able  to  ascertain,  not  one  of  them  is  a  con- 
sistent believer  in  college  education. 

"Certainly  none  of  them  have  expressed  in  their  letters  any 
regret  on  account  of  not  having  received  such  education  them- 
selves. 

"On  the  contrary,  Mr.  Roswell  Miller  remarks  that  he  spent 
one  year  in  college,  and  considers  it  fortunate  that  he  did  not  spend 
more." 

Without  depreciating  the  value  of  a  college  course,  our  business 
experience  tends  to  the  conclusion  that  men  and  women  trained 
up  from  youth  in  the  business  are  the  most  successful ;  that  length 
of  service,  with  its  unconscious  absorption  of  and  self-adjustment 
to  the  principles  and  needs  of  the  business,  will  carry  a  given  de- 
gree of  natural  capacity  to  a  higher  point  of  efhciency  and  success 
than  an  originally  greater  degree  of  capacity  will  be  likely  to  reach 
by  the  shorter  road  of  business  training  begun  in  maturer  years. 


174  The  Annals  of  the  America >i  Academy 

I  am  aware  that  business  success  is  but  a  partial  test  of  true  edu- 
cation, and  my  mark  is  missed  if  I  seem  to  have  set  up  that  as  my 
test  alone.  Perhaps  from  the  unfavorable  conditions  of  child  labor 
in  the  past,  has  arisen  the  assumption  that  to  work  for  wages  in 
early  years  is  necessarily  a  misfortune  to  the  child,  and,  until  now 
at  least,  the  instinctive  choice  of  parents  is  for  long  years  in  the 
schools.  But  as  time  brings  to  working  men  and  women  improved 
conditions,  shortened  hours,  higher  standards  of  intelligence,  in- 
creased rate  of  earnings,  may  not  a  proportionate  bettering  for  the 
child  bring  conditions  so  normal,  to  the  best  education  and  develop- 
ment, as  that  labor  in  the  real  world  of  business  or  trade  will  ac- 
complish more,  and  more  desirably,  for  the.  child  that  which  is 
striven  for  in  business  and  trades  courses  of  the  schools  ? 

Modern  educational  methods  have  carried  much  of  the  shop 
and  counting-house  into  the  school-room,  while  but  little  in  the 
reverse  order  has  been  accomplished,  at  least  in  this  country. 
Pennsylvania  State  law  has  done  little  more  for  the  child  than  to 
forbid  his  being  employed  in  manufacturing  or  mercantile  estab- 
lishments before  the  age  of  thirteen,  and  thereafter  to  surround  his 
employment  with  some  safeguards  against  danger  to  life  or  limb. 
But  considerably  greater  progress  has  been  made  in  Germany, 
Some  present  here  will  recall  a  paper  read  in  this  room  by  our  Con- 
sul at  Chemnitz,  the  Hon.  J.  C.  Monaghan,  on  "Industrial  Educa- 
tion, a  German  Example."  Mr.  Monaghan  tells  of  industrial 
schools  established  in  manufacturing  districts  for  the  benefit  of 
the  workers  of  the  factories,  where  the  law  requires  so  many  hours 
in  the  week  to  be  spent  in  these  schools  by  the  younger  employees, 
who  thus  combine  the  practical  of  their  business  with  the  theo- 
retical of  their  school.  I  quote  from  Mr.  Monaghan:  "I  have  had 
exceptional  opportunities  during  three  periods,  since  the  war  of 
1870,  of  investigating  the  industrial  progress  of  Germany,  and  to 
make  what  might  easily  be  a  long  story  short,  I  may  say  it  is  due 
mainly  to  education.  When  you  are  building  a  house,  you  begin 
with  the  foundations.  When  you  are  building  up  a  man,  you  begin 
with  the  child.  Germany  a  century  ago,  after  its  exhaustion  and 
humiliation  caused  by  the  great  wars,  fixed  the  foundation  of  its 
new  life  and  development  on  the  rock  of  education.  The  country 
was  poor,  its  people  could  only  exist  by  hard  work,  and  their  edu- 
cation was  organized  so  as  to  help  them  with  their  work. 
Germany  has  a  system  of  further-developing  schools,  and  indus- 


Child  Labor  i?i  the  Dcpartiiioit  Store  175 

trial  art  schools,  so  close  to  the  people  that  they  aid  the  trades  and 
industries  in  such  a  way  as  to  commend  themselves  to  all  parties 
concerned  therewith.  Education  in  Germany  is  compulsory. 
After  graduating  from  the  public  schools  (or  leaving  the  public 
school,  for  reference  here  is  to  the  lower  grade  schools  which  boys 
leave  at  fourteen  or  fifteen  for  work,  as  they  do  with  us  at  thirteen) 
and  entering  upon  an  employment,  they  are  not  only  expected  but 
compelled  to  attend  these  further-developing  schools  for  a  period 
of  three  years.  They  go  two  or  three  times  each  week,  sometimes 
on  Sunday.  They  are  developing  the  scientific  side,  if  one  may 
put  it  thus,  of  the  trade  or  business  with  which  they  are  connected." 
Here,  then,  is  the  child  at  work  and  yet  the  school  brought  to  him. 
But  a  step  further  brings  to  him  also  those  branches  of  study 
usually  associated  with  the  school  alone  and  suggested  more  b}' 
the  liberal  than  the  strictly  business  and  trade  view  of  education. 
Instead,  then,  of  commercial  and  mechanical  work  in  the  school  of 
the  schools,  we  have  school- work  in  the  school  of  actual  commerce 
and  industry,  in  the  store  and  factory. 

And  shall  we  say  that  this  reversal  of  the  older  plan  may  not 
have  a  wise  and  lasting  place  in  educational  life  ? 

Is  the  labor  of  the  store,  shop  or  office  more  truly  educative 
when  imitated  in  the  class-rooms  of  commercial  and  trade  schools, 
than  when  done  in  course  of  actual  business?  Do  not  the  labor 
and  experiences  of  business  life,  with  their  real  responsibilities, 
their  unartificial  rewards  and  retributions,  their  contact  with  men 
in  real  life,  do  all  the  former  can  do  and  much  more?  Certainly 
the  real  thing  done  in  business  or  shop,  and  shaped  and  regulated 
to  serve  the  ends  of  the  world's  actual  economic  life,  must  have 
an  educative  advantage  above  the  like  thing  theorized  over  in  the 
school-room;  while  of  unquestionably  great  value  is  that  further 
reward  which  the  school  of  actual  business  gives  to  its  pupils, 
namely — a  knowledge  of  men  and  affairs,  confidence,  judgment, 
association  with  practical  workers  at  the  centre  of  the  world's  daily 
life. 

Keep  the  children  young,  we  are  tempted  to  say  as  we  see 
them  in  our  own  home  circles.  A  dangerous  plan!  Rather,  let 
the  children  learn  what  they  must,  of  the  best  masters,  and  as  their 
years  are  able!  So  wise  and  devoted  a  parent  as  Lord  Chester- 
field wrote  his  young  son:  "Do  not  imagine  that  the  knowledge, 
which  I  so  much  commend  to  you,  is  confined  to  books,  pleasing, 


176  TJie  Atinals  of  the  AnicriccDi  Academy 

useful,  and  necessary  as  that  knowledge  is;  but  I  comprehend  in 
it  the  great  knowledge  of  the  world,  still  more  necessary  than  that 
of  books.  The  knowledge  of  the  world  is  only  to  be  acquired  in 
the  world,  and  not  in  a  closet."  "Happy  the  man  who,  with  a 
certain  fund  of  parts  and  knowledge,  gets  acquainted  with  the 
world  early  enough  to  make  it  his  bubble,  at  an  age  when  most 
people  are  the  bubbles  of  the  world,  for  that  is  the  common  case 
of  youth." 

If,  then,  the  commercial  and  trades  training,  the  business  or 
manual,  or  whatever  the  course  be  called,  can  be  found  in  actual 
commerce  and  trade;  if  a  sufficient  degree  of  scholastic  education 
can  there  be  added,  and  if  with  this  the  maturing  man  or  woman 
shall  gain  a  higher  degree  of  technical  skill  and  a  safer  knowledge 
of  men  and  affairs,  does  not  the  plan  of  the  school  in  business  best 
meet  the  educational  problem  for  at  least  a  majority  of  child- 
kind?  Answer  as  you  may  for  present  or  future,  this  is  true 
now — that  child  labor  in  the  Wanamaker  store  means  education, 
physical,  scholastic,  commercial;  development  in  character,  fitness 
for  intelligent  work,  and  fitting  into  a  place  in  the  bread-and-butter 
belt  of  the  world;  an  open  path  and  a  helping  hand  to  the  career 
of  the  man  or  woman  who  shall  add  a  due  part  to  the  sum  of  life 
and  win  the  crown  fashioned  by  the  Great  Father  for  each  of  us, 
His  children,  who  finds  his  duty  and  does  it. 

Discussion. 

"Q.  Has  the  store  any  difficulty  in  keeping  out  boys  under 
thirteen  ? 

"A.  Practically  no  difficulty.  I  have  no  doubt  the  truth  is 
stretched  occasionally  and  those  not  yet  thirteen  brought  in,  but 
there  must  be  an  affidavit  as  to  age,  and  few  of  the  class  of  people 
from  whom  our  employees  are  drawn  are  willing  to  swear  to  a  lie 
in  order  to  secure  earlier  employing  of  the  child. 

"Q.   Is  there  a  physical  examination,  a  physician  in  charge? 

"A.  There  is  no  physical  examination  other  than  that  which 
the  eye  of  the  employer  can  give.  The  first  weeks  or  months  of 
the  boy's  service,  or  girl's,  develop  the  fact  whether  physically, 
mentally  and  otherwise,  the  child  is  suited  for  the  business. 

"  Q.   How  long  has  this  system  been  in  operation? 

"A.  I  think  it  was  six  years  ago  that  we  began  with  the  school 


Child  Labor  ui  the  Departnioit  Store  lyy 

for  cash  boys.  It  was  some  two  or  three  years  before  that  the 
initial  step,  out  of  which  all  the  rest  has  grown,  was  taken.  The 
plan  arose  originally  from  a  recognition  of  the  fact  that  the  young 
people  who  came  into  the  store  were  not  sufficiently  looked  after. 
They  were  apt  to  be  lost  sight  of,  as  distributed  in  the  various 
departments,  and  when  the  busy  season  passed  and  some  reduction 
in  the  force  became  necessary,  the  department  head  was  often  not 
far-sighted  enough  to  consider  that  the  small  boy  now  would  be  his 
best  man  in  the  years  to  come.  It  was  the  recognition  of  this  fact 
that  led  to  the  beginning  of  the  plan  of  which  the  first  step  was 
merely  the  placing  of  the  smaller  boys  of  the  establishment  under 
one  head.  All  the  other  steps  came  one  by  one,  as  our  experience 
led  to  them. 

"0.  You  referred  to  the  fact  that  your  experience  had  shown 
that  college  training  was  not  useful  in  business  career.  Are  there 
many  college  men  in  your  departments,  or  are  you  able  to  find  that 
out? 

"A.  I  did  not  give  this  as  our  own  experience  and  conclusion, 
but  was  quoting  that  of  others  as  given  in  the  pamphlet  of  Mr. 
Crane's,  to  which  I  referred,  and  which  contains  my  answer  to  a 
letter  from  him.  Mr.  Crane  sent  letters  to  representatives  of  va- 
rious establishments,  asking  that  question.  So  far  as  I  can  recall 
the  answer,  it  was  that  we  were  unable  to  say  exactly,  but  taking 
such  departments  as  required  salesmen,  bookkeepers  and  so  on 
(that  is,  dropping  out  the  delivery  and  packing  rooms,  where  the 
more  highly  educated  would  naturally  not  be  found),  aggregating 
some  five  hundred  and  fifty  men,  we  found  twenty-six  who  had 
had  either  a  full  or  partial  college  education.  It  is  not  our  custom 
to  inquire  as  to  the  college  education.  The  difference  in  the  success 
of  the  college-educated  man  and  the  one  not  so  educated  has  not, 
in  our  experience,  been  sufficiently  ■  marked  to  make  that  a  point 
of  distinction  in  engaging  the  rank  and  file  of  our  men,  although 
in  the  man  of  college  education  we  naturally  look  for  quicker 
progress  or  brighter  mental  work." 


The  Necessity  for  Factory  Legislation  in  the 

South 


By  Hayes  Robbins,  Dean.  Institute  of  Social  Economics,  New  York 


(179) 


THE  NECESSITY  FOR    FACTORY  LEGISLATION  IN  THE 

SOUTH 


By  Hayes  Robbins 
Dean,  Institute  of  Social  Economics,  New  York 


The  keynote  that  needs  to  be  struck  in  the  child  labor  matter, 
South  or  anywhere,  is  not  "hands  off,"  but  hands  on.  It  is  for- 
tunate for  social  progress  that  the  point  of  view  of  modern  economic 
thought  has  drifted  so  far  away  from  the  old-school  doctrine  of 
non-interference  that  we  can  take  hold  of  a  problem  like  this  to 
some  robust,  practical  purpose,  v/ithout  becoming  intellectually 
disreputable;  and  the  reason  why  this  is  fortunate  is  that  right 
here  factory  legislation  has  met  its  bitterest  opposition,  ever  since 
the  first  child  labor  act  in  England,  in  1802. 

The  doctrine  that  cheapness  is  the  all-sufficient  goal  of  eco- 
nomic progress,  the  only  economic  fact  of  any  possible  interest  or 
concern  to  the  laborers,  has  been  a  corner-stone  in  political  economy. 
Only  within  recent  years  has  the  idea  begun  to  dawn  that  an  ade- 
quate theory  of  economic  welfare  must  include  the  interests  of  the 
citizen  as  a  producer  as  well  as  a  consumer;  that  the  conditions 
under  which  the  man  works,  and  his  opportunities  of  enjoying  the 
fruits  of  his  labor,  are  quite  as  vital  to  his  happiness  as  the  price 
of  potatoes  or  beef  or  clothing.  It  is  clear,  now,  however,  that 
cheapness,  important  as  it  is,  must  come,  and  in  the  long  run  can 
only  come,  through  more  effective  utilizing  of  natural  forces,  by 
invention  and  machinery,  not  through  the  overworking  and  social 
degradation  of  labor;  and  the  great  enlightening  circumstance 
on  this  point  has  been  the  fact  that  the  whole  price-cheapening 
trend  of  our  modern  industrial  era  has  come  hand  in  hand  with 
increasing  wages,  diminishing  hours,  and  restrictions  on  the  labor 
of  women  and  children. 

In  respect  to  child  labor  alone,  the  progress  of  protective 
legislation  has  been  extraordinary.  England  has  had  a  half-time 
factory  and  school  law  for  children  of  nine  and  over  since  1844,  the 
half-time  age  having  since  been  raised  to  eleven;  and  a  fourteen- 
year  age  limit  for  full-day  work  since  1874.     In  Germany  the  limit 

(181) 


1 82  The  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 

for  full-day  work  is  fourteen  years,  and  for  any  factory  -work  at  all 
thirteen;  in  Holland,  Belgium,  France,  Austria,  Norway  and 
■Sweden  it  is  twelve ;  in  Russia  fifteen,  half-time  being  allowed  from 
twelve  up.  In  Switzerland  it  is  fourteen;  in  Denmark  fourteen, 
with  half-time  allowed  from  ten  up;  and  even  in  Italy  child  labor 
under  nine  years  is  absolutely  prohibited. 

Here  in  the  United  States,  at  the  beginning  of  1899,  when  the 
last  complete  compilation  on  the  subject  was  made,  there  were 
limitations  on  child  labor  in  thirty-four  states  and  all  the  terri- 
tories. To  select  for  comparison  our  greatest  manufacturing 
■states,  as  showing  most  clearly  the  possibility  of  prosperity  without 
child  labor,  the  limit  under  which  such  labor  is  prohibited  in 
Massachusetts,  New  York,  Connecticut  lUinois  and  Indiana  is 
fourteen  years;  in  Georgia  no  limit.  In  Rhode  Island  fifteen  and 
Ohio  fourteen,  except  during  school  vacations,  and  no  work  at  all 
under  twelve;  in  North  Carolina  no  limit.  In  New  Jersey  twelve 
for  boys  and  fourteen  for  girls;  in  Alabama  no  limit,  except  in 
mines,  twelve  years.  In  Pennsylvania  thirteen;  in  South  Carolina 
no  limit.  Happily,  the  tendency  is  moving  Southward;  Missouri, 
Maryland,  Tennessee  and  even  Louisiana  now  have  restrictive 
laws;  so  that  the  section  specially  known  as  the  new  industrial 
South,  the  home  of  the  Southern  cotton  and  iron  manufacturing 
industries,  is  the  only  place  in  the  United  States  where  the  idea  of 
protecting  the  physical,  moral  and  educational  opportunities  of 
little  children  has  made  practically  no  impression  in  statute  law. 

At  the  outset,  now,  of  her  industrial  development,  the  South 
has  a  unique  opportunity.  She  can  transfer  to  her  own  conditions 
the  results  of  nearly  all  Christendom's  experience  in  humane  factory 
regulation,  without  having  to  suffer  over  again  the  hardships  and 
struggles  this  progress  has  cost.  I  do  not  mean  to  imply  that  all 
such  legislation  has  worked  to  perfection,  without  evasion  or  hard- 
ship ;  but  the  vast  improvement  over  no  legislation  at  all  indicates 
the  soundness  of  the  effort  and  points  the  line  of  further  reform. 
Those  who  have  not  yet  even  made  a  start  ought  not  to  be  fright- 
ened out  of  a  beginning  because  the  others  still  have  something 
more  to  do. 

The  Japanese  are  a  case  in  point.  They  are  now  reported  to 
be  sending  students  abroad  to  study  modern  labor  legislation,  with 
the  object  of  applying  it  to  their  own  oncoming  factory  system 
at  the  beginning,  recognizing  that  it  is  as  inevitable  as  progress 


The  Necessity  for  Factory  Legislation  in  the  South         183 

itself.     Russia,  even   Russia,  has  already  done  this.     Surely  the 
new  South  does  not  need  to  go  to  school  in  Russia  and  Japan. 

It  seems  hardly  necessary  to  prove  the  importance  of  doing 
something.  Bare  statement  of  the  admitted  fact  that  children 
of  eight  to  twelve,  and  even  younger,  are  working  in  the  mills 
through  the  industrial  South  tells  the  story,  and  ought  to  be  suf- 
ficient. Personally,  I  have  seen  the  child  labor  system  in  operation 
in  North  and  South  Carolina,  Georgia  and  Alabama,  and  gathered 
some  vivid  impressions;  have  seen  scores  of  little  people  working 
in  the  dust  and  din  of  the  spinning-rooms,  seen  scores  of  others  on 
their  way  to  the  mills  before  daylight,  who  would  not  come  out 
until  after  dark,  the  hours  of  labor  ranging  from  eleven  to  twelve ; 
have  been  in  the  homes  of  these  people  and  learned  something  of 
how  they  live  and^  the  wages  they  receive.  For  example,  we 
brought  back  from  the  South  some  154  weekly  pay  envelopes  for 
both  adults  and  children,  collected  from  operatlv^es'  families  in 
one  of  the  best  sections,  and  nearly  100  of  them  are  for  less  than 
$1.50  each,  per  week,  the  average  in  most  cases  ranging  from  ten 
to  thirty  or  forty  cents  a  day ;  only  older  children  earning  the  latter 
sums,    however. 

In  other  words,  low  as  the  wage-rates  are,  the  actual  caniiiigs, 
especially  of  children,  are  much  lower.  This  is  due  partly  to 
absences,  partly  to  constant  deductions  of  all  sorts,  for  faulty  work, 
rent,  money  advanced,  car-fare  advanced  to  get  them  down  from 
the  mountains  or  in  from  the  country  to  the  mills,  and  what  not. 
In  forty-four  out  of  the  154  envelopes,  these  deductions  exactly 
cancel  the  entire  amount  of  wages  due.  Let  me  cite  three  or  four 
specimen  cases,  omitting  names.  One  envelope,  repeated  two  or 
three  times,  shows  wages  for  the  week  $1.00,  rent  seventy-five 
cents,  balance  twenty-five  cents;  another,  wages  $1.20,  tin  cup 
five  cents,  transportation  $1.15,  balance  nothing;  another,  wages 
$3.00,  rent  $1.4.0,  loan  $1.00,  balance  paid  sixty  cents;  another, 
wages  $1.50,  transportation  $1.00,  balance  fifty  cents;  and  so  on. 

It  is  impossible  to  state  with  exactness  the  number  of  children 
under  a  given  age,  say  fourteen  years,  employed  in  Southern  fac- 
tories. The  Federal  census  does  not  cover  this  point,  and  only  one 
Southern  state  of  the  group  under  consideration — North  Carolina— 
makes  any  provision  for  collecting  and  publishing  industrial  and 
labor  statistics.  Close  approximation  to  the  facts  of  the  general 
•conditions,  however,  is  not  very  difticult.     It  appears  from  the 


184  The  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 

latest  report  of  Commissioner  Lacy,  of  the  North  CaroHna  Bureau 
of  Labor,  that  about  7,600  children  under  fourteen  years  of  age 
were  employed  in  261  mills  in  that  state.  The  Federal  census 
bulletins  on  manufactures,  now  being  issued,  show  the  total  number 
of  employees  in  the  cotton  manufacturing  industry  in  the  five 
Southern  states  where  any  important  amount  of  cotton  manufac- 
turing exists;  and  for  North  Carolina  the  total  in  1900  was  30,273 
operatives.  In  other  words,  more  than  one-third  of  the  total  num- 
ber of  operatives  in  the  cotton  mills  of  that  state  are  children  under 
fourteen  years  of  age.  In  South  Carolina  the  total  number  of 
operatives  in  1900  was  30,201,  in  Georgia  18,348,  in  Alabama  8,332, 
in  Mississippi  1,675,  the  total  for  the  five  states  being  88,829. 
Estimating  the  same  proportion  of  child  labor  throughout  the 
entire  group  (and  this  is  entirely  legitimate,  since  North  Carolina 
conditions  are  even  better  than  in  some  other  manufacturing  sec- 
tions in  the  South),  it  would  appear  that  there  are  more  than 
22,000  children  under  fourteen  years  of  age  in  the  cotton  mills  of 
these  states.  On  this  basis,  it  is  a  conservative  estimate  to  say 
that  at  least  eight  or  ten  thousand  of  these  children  are  under 
twelve,  while  the  lower  extreme  of  the  age  limit  is  down  even  to  the 
almost  unbelievable  point  of  six  years;  the  fact  being  well  estab- 
lished that  children  as  young  as  six  to  eight  and  nine  years  are 
to-day  working  in  some  of  the  Southern  mills. 

Remember,  along  with  this,  the  fact  just  observed  in  the  case 
of  our  Northern  states  and  European  countries,  where  legislation 
on  child  labor  exists,  that  fourteen  years  is  very  nearly  the  average 
age  under  which  factory  labor  is  prohibited  altogether.  In  other 
words,  the  absence  of  any  restrictions  in  the  South  means  that 
fully  one-third  of  all  the  operatives  are  3'ounger  than  the  age 
standard  established  by  the  forces  of  humanitarian  opinion  and 
wise  statesmanship  throughout  the  larger  part  of  Christendom. 

The  amounts  earned  by  the  children  in  Southern  mills  would 
not  be  necessary  to  the  support  of  the  families  under  any  proper 
system  of  factory  regulation.  The  economics  of  the  situation 
would  inevitably  take  care  of  that.  If  the  labor  of  the  children  is 
not  available,  the  mills  must  employ  older  help,  and  in  order  to  get 
such  help  must  pay  wages  sufficient  to  maintain  the  families,  in- 
cluding the  children.  This  is  how  the  matter  has  adjusted  itself 
wherever  child  labor  has  been  restricted,  and  of  economic  necessity 
it  must  be  so.     The  difference  in  labor  expense  involved  has  never 


Tlic  Necessity  for  Factory  Legislation  in  the  South        185 

yet  been  sufficient  to  hamper  industrial  activity  or  drive  capital 
away  from  any  industrial  section,  and,  so  long  as  competing  groups 
are  not  permitted  to  gain  a  permanent  advantage  by  the  whole- 
sale use  of  child  labor,  it  never  will. 

The  lack  of  restrictions  on  child  labor  makes  possible  also  that 
semi-barbarous  institution  of  night  work.  Where  all  the  family 
work  by  turns  in  the  mill,  the  results  are  shockingly  demoralizing. 
Just  as  a  side-light  on  one  phase  of  this  system,  let  me  quote  a 
paragraph  from  a  discussion  of  factory  evils  in  the  South,  just  pub- 
lished this  month,  by  Rev.  J.  A.  Baldwin,  of  Charlotte,  N.  C,  a 
special  student  of  these  problems.  Where  part  of  the  family  work 
by  day  and  part  by  night,  he  says: 

"The  mother  has  to  get  up  at  4:30  in  the  morning  to  get 
breakfast  for  the  day  hands,  so  they  can  be  at  the  mill  at  six ;  then 
the  night  hands  come  and  eat  about  seven.  She  has  to  have  din- 
ner for  the  day  hands  strictly  at  twelve.  The  night  hands  get  up 
and  eat  from  four  to  five,  so  as  to  be  ready  to  go  to  work  for  the 
night  at  six;  she  also  gives  them  a  lunch  to  be  eaten  at  midnight. 
Then  the  day  hands  get  out  at  six  and  have  supper  about  seven. 
Besides  this,  there  is  house-cleaning,  washing  and  ironing,  sewing, 
and  often  the  care  of  little  children.  .  .  .  The  mills  usually 
run  sixty-six  hours  per  week  at  night;  that  is,  the  operatives  work 
twelve  hours  from  Monday  night  to  Friday  night  inclusive,  and  on 
Saturday  get  up  about  two  o'clock  (before  they  have  had  enough 
sleep)  to  go  to  work  at  three.  They  then  work  till  nine,  at  night. 
As  a  matter  of  fact  it  is  usually  ten  or  eleven  when  they  get  out. 

"Night  work  is  much  worse  in  summer  than  in  the  winter. 
In  the  winter  they  go  to  bed,  cover  up  and  sleep  soundly.  In 
summer  it  is  difficult  to  sleep  on  account  of  light,  heat,  ffies  and 
noise.  In  summer,  while  they  usually  go  to  bed,  it  is  a  very 
familiar  sight  to  see  them  lying  across  the  bed  with  their  work- 
clothes  on,  or  on  a  pallet  in  the  passage  or  on  the  porch.  Their 
sleep  is  fitful  and  unsatisfying,  and  they  never  feel  bright  and  fresh 
from  the  beginning  to  the  end  of  the  week.  They  furnish  tlie  most 
favorable  conditions  for  the  development  of  physical,  intellectual 
and  spiritual  disease  germs." 

The  children  of  factory  families  in  the  South  to-day  have  no 
protection  against  this.  Night  work  for  women  and  children 
ought  to  be  absolutely  prohibited.  It  is,  almost  everywhere  else, 
even  in  Russia.     This  would  practicahy  force  either  the  employ- 


1 86  TJie  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 

ment  of  men  only  in  night  work,  or  else  its  abolition  altogether. 
I  would  not  deny  that  there  may  sometimes  be  good  economic 
reasons  for  night  work,  at  least  in  rush  times,  but  it  should  be 
done  by  men  if  at  all,  never  by  women  and  children. 

Xobody  is  urging  any  step  that  threatens  to  destroy  Southern 
mill  profits,  but  it  must  be  insisted  that  there  is  another  way  to 
secure  profits  than  the  way  of  using  child  labor.  Scientific  improve- 
ment of  industrial  methods  is  the  only  sure  and  safe  road  to  perma- 
nent prosperity,  and  it  would  not  seem  that  the  South  has  much  to 
fear  when  the  great  bulk  of  the  most  prosperous  industry  in  Chris- 
tendom is  being  conducted  under  more  or  less  advanced  forms  of 
factory  regulation.  Furthermore,  nobody  need  or  ought  to  urge 
legislation  as  the  remedy  on  the  ground  that  Southern  manufac- 
turers are  all  indifferent  and  inhumane.  Legislation  is  urged 
simply  because  it  is  the  most  uniform  and  least  costly  method  the 
South  could  of  its  own  accord  adopt.  Southern  manufacturers  are 
no  more  types  of  hardhearted  callousness  than  are  manufacturers 
anywhere ;  they  have  all  been  opposed  to  factory  legislation  at  one 
time  or  another,  under  the  influence  of  mistaken  economic  doc- 
trines. I  do  not  know,  but  would  risk  it,  that  scores  of  Southern 
manufacturers  would  be  glad  to  see  these  evils  abolished  in  their 
own  mills  if  they  could  do  it  without  immediate  competitive  dis- 
advantage with  all  the  rest.  Here  comes  in  the  advantage  of 
legislation,  that  by  establishing  the  same  conditions  and  oppor- 
tunities for  all,  it  imposes  no  special  relative  handicap  on  any. 

Moreover,  and  here  is  one  of  the  saddest  features  of  all,  the 
fathers,  sometimes  even  the  mothers,  are  among  the  worst 
offenders  in  this  whole  matter.  I  have  seen  cases,  and  there  are 
others  in  abundance,  where  the  wife  and  children  practically  earn 
the  family  living  in  the  mill,  while  the  father  thoughtfully  carries 
in  the  dinner-pail  at  noon,  perhaps  working  a  little  on  odd  days 
wdien  he  gets  tired  of  loafing.  AVe  cannot  altogether  blame  the 
manufacturers  when  these  people  are  fairly  urging  them  to  take  on 
the  children  in  the  mills;  and  we  need  to  remember  also  that  to 
most  of  these  unfortunate  people  factory  life  is  a  distinct  improve- 
ment over  the  log-cabin,  salt  pork  and  peach  brandy,  white-trash 
and  Georgia-cracker  type  of  life  from  which  many  of  them  were 
sifted  out  when  the  mills  came.  The  manufacturer  knows  this, 
and  it  is  not  surprising  that  he  should  even  think  himself  some- 
thing of  a  philanthropist,  just  in  furnishing  mill  jobs  on  almost 


TJic  Necessity  for  Factory  Legislation  in  tJie  South         187 

any  terms.  He  does  not  see  as  yet  that  when  these  people  drift 
down  into  the  factory  centres  they  become  industrial,  social  and 
political  factors  in  an  altogether  new  and  more  serious  sense  than 
they  ever  could  be  while  burrowing  in  the  mountain  sides. 

To  have  practically  all  of  the  next  generation  of  factory  oper- 
atives growing  up  stunted  in  body  and  mind,  and  nearly  all  of  them 
illiterates,  in  a  section  of  the  country  where  the  general  average  of 
illiteracy  is  already  appalling,  is  a  matter  of  the  gravest  concern. 
Southern  manufacturers  sooner  or  later  will  have  to  recognize  this 
fact,  and  its  impending  consequences.  According  to  the  1900 
census  statistics  just  appearing,  the  proportion  of  illiteracy  among 
males  of  voting  age,  white  and  black  together,  was,  in  Alabama  33.7 
per  cent,  in  Georgia  31.6  per  cent,  in  Mississippi  33. S  per  cent, 
in  North  Carolina  29.4  per  cent,  in  '^outh  Carolina  35.1  per  cent; 
as  compared,  for  instance,  with  6.4  per  cent  in  Massachusetts,  6.8 
per  cent  in  Connecticut,  9.2  per  cent  in  Rhode  Island,  5.9  per 
cent,  in  New  York,  6.9  per  cent  in  New  Jersey,  7.7  per  cent  in 
Pennsylvania.  The  South  simply  cannot  afford  to  permit  the 
processes  to  go  on  that  are  adding  fresh  groups  every  year  to  its 
^rand  total  of  illiterate  and  unfit  citizens.  In  the  face  of  the 
present  situation,  if  a  new  race  of  degenerates,  brought  up  in 
exhausting  toil,  dense  ignorance,  and  exposed  to  all  the  temptations 
of  an  unprotected  environment,  is  to  be  developed  now  in  the  fast- 
growing  centres  of  the  new  South,  they  are  certain  to  form  a  social 
and  civic  and  economic  menace  to  the  community. 

This  will  be  true  not  only  of  the  South;  the  matter  is  coming 
to  have  a  national  significance.  Within  the  limits  of  any  one 
interdependent  industrial  group,  like  the  United  States,  there  must 
be  at  least  some  general  approach  to  uniformity  in  the  working 
conditions  of  the  laborers,  by  given  lines  of  industries.  Differ- 
ences in  competitive  success  must  come  from  differences  in  manag- 
ing ability,  quality  of  plant,  or  natural  environment,  not  from 
different  standards  of  decency  in  the  use  of  labor.  If  long  hours 
and  child  labor  become  the  fixed  conditions  of  success,  the  whole 
field  of  competing  industry  must  eventually  come  down  to  that 
basis.  A  competitive  influence  which  works  for  the  undermining 
of  higher  standards  of  living,  wherever  established,  is  a  matter  of 
universal  concern.  In  a  democracy,  no  condition  is  safe  which 
•offers  a  competitive  advantage  to  anything  that  leads  toward 
ignorant,  inferior  citizenship.     It  is  not  safe  anywhere,  whether  in 


1 88  TJie  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 

Southern  mill  villages  or  Northern  city  slums,  because  to  make 
degradation  profitable  in  any  quarter  sets  the  current  of  tendency, 
that  way,  with  demoralizing  effect. 

That  is  why  it  is  not  meddlesome  interference  for  American 
citizens  not  of  the  South  to  have  a  concern  about  this  matter,  from 
the  broad  standpoint  of  national  welfare.  The  real  test-point  of 
permanent  progress  and  prosperity,  affecting  the  nation  as  well 
as  the  South,  is  not  the  size  of  profits  in  Southern  mills  in  the  next 
five  years,  large  as  we  hope  they  may  be  through  all  proper  means ; 
but  it  is  the  quality  of  Southern  citizenship  in  the  next  five  gen- 
erations. That  citizenship  is  now  in  the  making,  and  now  is  the 
time  of  times  to  safeguard  its  development.  Such  action  will  be 
good  economics,  good  morals,  good  humanity.  For  the  South,  it 
is  an  inspiring  opportunity. 


Child  Labor  in  New  Jersey 


By  Hugh  F.  Fox,  President  New  Jersey  State  Board  of  Children's 

Guardians 


(189) 


CHILD  LABOR  IN  NEW  JERSEY 


By  Hugh  F.  Fox 
President  New  Jersey  State  Board  of  Children's  Guardians 


For  the  discussion  of  child  labor  in  New  Jersey  there  are  no 
official  data  in  which  reliance  can  be  placed.  The  reports  of  the 
State  Bureau  of  Factory  Inspection  are  conclusive  evidence  of  the 
incompetence  of  the  inspector  and  his  deputies.  The  State  Chari- 
ties Aid  Association  has  recently  analyzed  the  report  of  the 
Bureau  for  the  year  ending  October  27,  1900,  and  has  published 
the  results  in  the  New  Jersey  Review  of  Charities  and  Corrections,'^ 
and  it  is  shown  that  out  of  a  total  of  6,014  factories  and  bakeshops 
which  were  discovered  by  the  Bureau,  no  less  than  1,543  were  not 
visited  at  all,  and  yet  the  department  reports  favorably  on  5,862, 
indicating  that  1,391  were  reported  favorably,  but  not  visited. 
According  to  the  1900  census,  however,  there  were  in  New  Jersey 
8,308  factories  proper  (excluding  hand  trades),  and  1,485  clothing 
establishments,  excluding  families  working  in  the  tenements. 
The  factory  inspectors  also  report  on  1,185  bakeries,  so  that  there 
appears  to  have  been  a  total  of  10,978  establishments  which  it  was 
the  duty  of  the  inspectors  to  visit. 

The  factory  inspectors  found  5,968  children  under  sixteen  in 
the  6,014  establishments  which  they  reported;  an  average  of  about 
one  child  to  each  establishment.  Of  these  they  ordered  only  fifty- 
nine  children  discharged  during  the  year.  The  census  reports  an 
average  of  8,042  children  under  sixteen,  employed  in  manufactur- 
ing establishments  alone,  during  the  year.  Attention  should  be 
airected,  in  this  connection,  to  the  difference  between  the  duties 
of  a  census  taker  and  a  factory  inspector.  The  former  furnishes 
a  blank  schedule  to  the  manufacturer,  which  he  fills  out  at  his  own 
discretion,  without  any  verification  on  the  part  of  the  census  taker. 
In  short,  the  census  agent  takes  what  is  given  him  by  the  employer, 
and  his  interest  in  the  matter  is  entirelv  perfunctory.  The  factory 
inspector  is,  however,  supposed  to  make  his  own  investigation 
and  get  his  own  evidence,  though  it  is  generally  believed  that  in 
many  cases  he  contents  himself  with  a  visit  to  the  office  only  and  a 

^  Vol   I,  No.  4,  May,  1902. 

(191) 


192  The  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 

polite  exchange  of  social  amenities  with  the  employer.  While  the 
factory  inspector  is  expected  to  take  a  personal  interest  in  his 
figures,  it  involves  a  lot  of  extra  work  for  him  and  serious  trouble 
for  the  employer,  if  the  latter  is  so  thoughtless  as  to  inconvenience 
him  by  entering  into  embarrassing  particulars  in  regard  to  children. 
In  some  instances  it  is  reported  that  the  inspector  apprises  the 
factory  owner  of  his  intended  visit  beforehand,  the  children  being 
given  a  holiday  in  honor  of  the  occasion. 

The  New  Jersey  laws  prohibit  the  employment  of  boys  under 
twelve  and  girls  under  fourteen,  "in  any  factory,  workshop,  mine 
or  establishment  where  the  manufacture  of  any  goods  whatever  is 
carried  on."  Children  between  the  ages  of  twelve  and  fifteen  must 
have  attended  school  for  twelve  consecutive  weeks  (or  two  terms 
of  six  consecutive  weeks  each)  within  the  twelve  months  immedi- 
ately preceding  their  einployment.  Children  under  fifteen  must 
procure  a  certificate  from  their  teachers  giving  full  particulars  as  to 
attendance,  etc.  The  report  of  the  Department  of  Factory  In- 
spection does  not  indicate  how  many  of  the  5,968  children,  under 
sixteen,  are  over  the  age  of  fifteen,  but  of  the  total  number  of  chil- 
dren, only  1,343  were  required  to  produce  school  certificates.  It 
seems  hardly  possible  that  4,625  of  the  children  employed  were 
over  fifteen  years  of  age. 

The  inspectors  have  the  power  to  prohibit  overcrowding  in 
factories  and  workshops,  and  to  demand  a  certificate  of  physical 
fitness  from  some  regular  practicing  physician  in  the  case  of  minors 
who  may  seem  physically  unable  to  work.  Apparently  this  gives 
the  inspectors  power  to  prohibit  the  employment  of  any  girl 
under  eighteen,  or  boy  under  twenty-one,  who  cannot  obtain  such 
a  certificate,  but  it  is  evident  from  the  report  of  1900  that  this 
power  has  not  been  exercised. 

The  law  prohibits  the  employment  of  any  child  under  sixteen 
"at  any  work  dangerous  to  health,  without  a  certificate  of  fitness 
from  a  reputable  physician."  The  meaning  of  this  is  somewhat 
ambiguous.  Is  the  physician  to  certify  to  the  condition  of  the  child 
or  the  healthiness  of  the  occupation?  Who  is  to  decide  as  to 
whether  the  work  is  dangerous  to  health?  The  questions  are, 
however,  entirely  speculative,  since  the  factory  inspectors  have 
done  nothing  to  indicate  any  anxiety  to  put  the  matter  to  the  test. 
It  does  not  seem  to  have  occurred  to  the  inspectors  that  their  power 
to  set  a  standard  of   physical  fitness  for  children  really  removes 


Child  Labo7'  in  New  Jersey  193 

their  chief  difficulty.  At  a  recent  liearing  before  Governor  Murphy, 
Inspector  Ward  pleaded  that  there  were  many  difficulties  in  the 
wa}^  of  enforcing  the  laws,  his  department  being  confronted  with 
sworn  affidavits  of  parents  that  their  children  were  over  tlie  mini- 
mum age  of  twelve  years,  while  the  children  themselves  are  taught 
with  threats  never  to  admit  that  they  are  under  twelve  years  old. 
The  test  of  physical  fitness  is  really  much  more  important  than  that 
of  age,  and  the  power  to  apply  it  gives  the  factory  inspector  the 
whip-hand  over  both  the  child's  parent  and  tlie  employer.  It 
seems  strange,  however,  that  nothing  has  been  done  in  this  country 
to  define  fully  the  dangerous  trades  or  occupations.  The  British 
Parliament  appointed  a  committee  some  years  ago  on  "Dangerous 
Trades  and  Diseases  of  Occupations."  ^  The  report  of  this  com- 
mittee established  the  fact  that  lead  -poisoning  is  rampant  in  the 
potteries,  that  phosphorus  necrosis  is  common  in  the  match  fac- 
tories, and  that  naphtha  fumes  in  rubber-manufacturing  results 
frequently  in  premature  aging  and  paralysis.  Among  other  spe- 
cially unhealthy  occupations  may  be  mentioned  glass-making, 
printing,  cutlery,  Siilk-mills,  hats,  pearl  buttons  and  tobacco. 
What  Mrs.  Kelley  said  in  1896,  at  the  National  Conference  of  Char- 
ities and  Correction,  is  equally  true  to-day: 

"The  physical  condition  of  working  children  has  never  re- 
ceived attention,  so  far  as  I  know,  in  any  systematic  way.  There 
are  some  desultory  provisions  in  the  New  York  and  Illinois  factory 
laws  which  show  there  is  a  dim  consciousness  in  the  law-making 
mind  that  children  may  be  put  at  work  beyond  their  strength, 
unless  there  is  supervision  of  them  by  some  state  officer.  But 
these  provisions  are  so  loosely  drawn  that  they  are  nugatory.  The 
Illinois  inspectors  are  urging  upon  the  Legislature  the  necessity  of 
adding  to  the  staff  a  physician  who  shall  give  her  whole  time  to  the 
care  of  the  children.  There  is,  at  present,  no  such  material  avail- 
able as  such  a  physician  could  furnish,  upon  the  condition  of  the 
children,  except  the  records  of  measurements  made  by  two  volun- 
teer physicians  for  the  inspectors,  in  1893  and  1894,  covering  about 
200  children,  taken  from  the  factories  and  workshops  of  Chicago. 
These  records,  published  in  the  Factory  Inspectors'  Report  for 
1S94,  are  startling  in  the  proportion  which  they  show  of  undersized, 
rachitic,  consumptive    children    at  work.     They  arc,   however,  so 

'See  "The  Government  Factory  Bill  of  1900,"  by  Gertrude  M.  Tuckwell,the   Honorary 
Secretary  of  the  Women's  Trade  Union  League.     Fortnightly  Review  for  June,  1900. 


194  The  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 

limited  in  number  that  their  principal  value  lies  in  indicating  the 
wide  field  open  for  investigating  the  working  child  as  compared  with 
the  school  child.  What  they  show,  comparatively,  is  that  the 
stature  of  the  working  child  is  far  less,  upon  the  average,  than  that 
of  the  city  school  child.  The  child  stud}^  of  the  past  ten  years  bears 
out  the  assertion  that  stature  in  children  is  indicative  of  general 
development,  physical  and  mental." 

The  New  Jersey  Factory  Inspectors  have  the  power  to  call 
upon  the  public  authorities  to  furnish  truant  officers,  who  are  re- 
quired to  act  under  their  direction.  But  this  law  is  also  a  dead 
letter.  So  too  is  another  law  which  was  passed  to  regulate  the 
sweat-shop  evil,  and  provides  that  "No  person,  firm  or  corporation 
shall  hire  or  employ  any  person  to  work  in  any  room  or  rooms, 
apartment  or  apartments,  in  any  tenement  or  dwelling-house,  or 
building  in  the  area  of  a  tenement  or  dwelling-house,  at  making,  in 
whole  or  in  part,  any  coats,  vests,  trousers,  knee  pants,  overalls, 
cloaks,  furs,  fur  trimmings,  fur  garments,  shirts,  purses,  feathers, 
artificial  flowers  or  cigars,  unless  such  person,  firm  or  corporation 
first  shall  have  obtained  a  written  permit  from  the  factory  and 
workshop  inspectors,  .  .  .  which  permit  may  be  revoked  at 
any  time  that  the  health  of  the  community  or  of  those  employed  as 
aforesaid  may  require  it,  and  that  such  permit  shall  not  be  granted 
until  due  and  satisfactory  inspection  of  the  premises  affected  shall 
have  been  made  by  the  said  inspector."  By  a  recent  act,  over- 
crowding in  tenements  or  rented  rooms  is  punishable  a';  a  fine  of 
$25.00.  Each  adult  must  have  300  cubic  feet  of  air;  each  child 
under  twelve,  150  feet. 

Public  authority  is  thoroughly  aroused  on  the  whole  question 
of  child  labor  in  New  Jersey,  and  some  interesting  facts  are  coming 
to  light.  The  trades  unions  are  taking  the  matter  up,  in  several 
directions,  and  the  searchlight  of  the  press  is  trained  on  several 
of  the  leading  industries — notably  the  glass  factories  of  South 
Jersey,  the  silk  and  textile  mills  of  Passaic  county,  and  the  various 
tobacco  and  cigar  factories  which  are  scattered  over  the  state.  It 
is  stated  that  each  man  employed  as  a  glassblower  is  required  to 
furnish  a  boy  as  a  "helper,"  and  that  a  combination  of  the  pa- 
drone system  and  veritable  child  slavery  exists.  Incidentally  it 
has  been  developed  that  many  boys  have  been  placed  in  the  families 
of  glassblowers  by  private  child-placing  societies  and  orphan 
asylums  of  New  Jersey  and  Pennsylvania.      It  furnishes  a  striking 


Cliild  Labor  in  Ncxv  Jersey  195 

argument  for  the  public  oversight  of  child-caring  agencies.      Here 
are  a  few  letters  from  local  cigarmakers'  unions: 

No.  loi,  Elizabeth. — "\Yeliave  Mr.  Hilson's  machine  cigar  manufactory 
here,  employing  about  300  or  400  hands,  all  girls;  about  one-half  of  them  are 
under  age;  our  vmion  has  from  time  to  time  been  obliged  to  see  the  factory 
inspector  to  remedy  this  evil;  wc  informed  him  about  a  week  ago  that  in 
case  he  further  neglects  his  duty  the  Union  County  Trades  Council  and  Cigar 
Makers'  Union  would  be  compelled  to  see  the  Governor.  The  leading  brand 
they  make  is  the  "Hoffman  House,"  which  is  done  up  in  neat  boxes,  and  as 
you  can  readily  see  they  are  able  to  undersell  all  union  goods,  as  the  lowest 
price  for  union  cigars  made  is  $8.00  per  M.,  while  they  can  furnish  them 
with  the  girls  working  for  them  for  $2.50  to  $3.00." 

No.  230,  MiLLViLLE. — "There  is  no  child  labor  in  connection  with  our 
trade  in  this  locality.  This  being  a  strong  union  city  we  have  no  use  for  the- 
production  of  child  labor  in  our  trade.  This  union  covers  Millville,  Vineland,. 
Bridgeton  and  Salem.  No  child  labor  in  either  city  in  connection  with  this- 
trade;  you  will  find  most  of  the  children  employed  are  employed  by  the 
American  Tobacco  Company  or  Trust.  They  have  a  factory  in  Camden.^ 
N.  J.,  this  being  the  nearest  one  to  this  city." 

No.  42S,  Trenton. — "There  is  one  place  that  employs  280,  mostly  chil- 
dren from  ten  years  old.  We  had  a  cominittee  last  week  working  on  the 
subject  of  child  labor  employed  in  this  place  known  as  the  American  Cigar 
Trust;  they  say  it  is  safe  to  say  that  the  ages  won't  average  over  fourteen. 
We  know  for  a  fact  that  their  children  are  not  allowed  to  say  a  word  to  one 
another  while  at  work,  if  they  do  they  wall  be  discharged.  They  claimed  at 
one  time  to  have  over  300  at  work  and  have  room  and  machinery  for  over  a 
thousand,  but  don't  seem  to  get  them  as  fast  as  they  thought.  Our  commit- 
tee reported  that  some  of  these  little  tots  when  they  came  out  at  night 
actually  fell  down  from  weakness,  but  there  seems  to  be  no  way  to  stop 
such  work. 

"The  work  that  these  children  do  costs  the  Trust  $2.10  per  thousand 
for  making  cigars,  and  the  low  price  for  men  is  $7.50  per  thousand;  the 
av^erage  cigarmakers  will  make  1500  a  week  of  this  kind  of  work,  and  three  of 
these  children  wth  machinery  make  six  thousand  a  week.  You  can  imagine,, 
when  the  Trust  siu-ely  get  their  feet  in  it,  what  will  become  of  cigarmaking." 

Man}^  of  the  children  in  the  glass  works  and  in  worsted  mills 
are  said  to  have  been  employed  on  "night  shifts."  If  the  children 
in  state  reformatories  were  worked  half  as  hard  as  the  children  in 
the  factories,  there  would  be  a  perfect  storm  of  indignation.  There 
is,  however,  a  general  awakening,  and  the  leading  papers  in  New- 
ark, Paterson,  Passaic,  Hoboken,  Jersey  City.  Trenton,  Camden 
and  other  cities  have  taken  the  matter  up  vigorously.  The  Gover- 
nor has  announced  his  determination  to  make  the  inspectors  devote 


ig6  The  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 

their  entire  time  to  their  duties,  in  accordance  with  the  law  just 
passed,  instead  of  spending  their  odd  moments  only  in  inspecting 
factories,  as  has  been  the  case  hitherto.  Good  results  are  already 
apparent,  and  the  new  inspectors  in  Essex  and  Passaic  counties  are 
making  a  strong  effort  to  enforce  the  laws.  The  latter  has  brought 
suits  against  several  employers  for  the  recovery  of  the  penalty  im- 
posed by  the  state  for  employing  children  illegally.  There  is  ample 
legislation  in  New  Jersey  for  the  regulation  of  child  labor,  though 
the  minimum  age  for  boys  should  be  raised  to  fourteen,  and  girls  to 
fifteen.  Now  that  the  community  is  informed  of  the  evil,  the  Legis- 
lature may  be  counted  on  to  make  an  adequate  appropriation  for 
expenses.  There  ought  to  be  a  lawyer  on  the  staff  of  the  Depart- 
ment of  Factory  Inspection,  and  an  effort  should  be  made  to  bring 
the  various  State  Boards  into  co-operation  in  the  work.  It  seems 
curious  that  no  reference  has  hitherto  been  made  to  child  labor  in  any 
of  the  reports  of  the  state  and  local  Boards  of  Health  and  of  Educa- 
tion; nor  does  the  Bureau  of  Statistics  of  Labor  and  Industries  seem 
to  know  anything  of  the  subject.  The  various  departments  of  the 
government  seem  to  be  so  afraid  of  overlapping,  that  in  this,  as  in 
other  matters,  they  studiously  ignore  each  other. 

The  "Lord  bill,"  which  was  passed  last  session,  authorizes  the 
Governor  to  appoint  a  woman  inspector,  and  strong  pressure  is 
being  brought  upon  Governor  Murphy  to  induce  him  to  do  so.  The 
State  Federation  of.  Labor  has  been  working  for  the  appointment 
of  a  woman  inspector  since  1897.  It  is  felt  that  the  duties  of  the 
office  involve  personal  qualities  possessed  in  an  eminent  degree  by 
many  women,  and  that  a  good  woman  inspector  would  work  a 
revolution  in  the  department. 

The  following  tables  are  given  for  purposes  of  comparison  with 
other  states.  The  school  census  of  1900,  taken  by  the  state,  gave 
457,479  children  of  school  age,  the  enrollment  being  322,575.  The 
number  of  schoolable  children  is  increasing  from  7,000  to  10,000 
per  year.  The  "persons  of  school  age"  in  the  Federal  census 
cover  all  from  five  to  twenty  years  of  age,  inclusive.  The  total  of 
them  was  572,917  (282,180  males  and  290,737  females).  The 
particulars  as  to  parentage  are : 

Bom  of  American  parents 271,827 

Bom  of  foreign  parents  in  United  States' 226,566 

Born  in  foreign  lands 54.837 

Bom  of  colored  parents 19.693 


Child  Labor  in  Neiv  Jersey 


197 


[U.S   Census,  1 900.] 

Persons  of  School  Age,  J  to  20  years  inclusive,  in  New  Jersey  Cities  of  2^,000  or  ?nore. 

[Sho7uing  62.^  per  cent  of  foreign  parentage.) 


Atlantic  City 
Bayonne 
Camden 
Elizabeth     . 
Hoboken     . 
Jersey  City 
Newark 
Passaic     .    . 
Paterson 
Trenton 


Total. 


6,782 
10,626 

22,943 
16,229 
18,699 
63,495 
74,897 
9,274 
33,170 
22,337 


278,452 


Native 
Parents. 


4,089 
2,812 
13,793 
5,551 
4,463 

21,535 
25,210 

1,653 
8,2^0 

10,591 


97,967 


Foreign 
Parents. 


1,265 

6,289 

6,510 

8,729 

",956 

35,271 

38,797 

3,934 

18,65s 

8,999 


140,405 


Foreign 
Bom. 


286 
1,426 
1,086 
1,619 
2,258 

5,744 
9,"4 
3,553 
5,965 
2,241 


Colored. 


1,146 
100 

1,557 

23 
953 
1,789 
134 
286 
508 


33,292 


6,827 


Notes  from  the  Census  Bulletins  Nos.  88,  89,  135  and  157  for 
New  Jersey  (1900): 

Total  population  of  New  Jersey 1,883,669 

This  was  made  up  as  follows: 

Born  of  American  parents 825,973 

Bom  of  foreign  parents  in  United  States 556,294 

Bom  in  foreign  lands 4,^0,050 

Bom  of  colored  parents 71-352 

The  percentage  of  the  New  Jersey  population  living  in  cities 
is  70.6.  The  states  of  Rhode  Island,  Massachusetts,  Connecticut 
and  New  York  are  the  only  ones  which  have  a  larger  percentage 
of  their  population  in  cities.  In  this  connection  it  is  interesting  to 
note  that  New  Jersey  ranks  sixth  in  the  United  States  in  the  value 
of  its  manufactured  products. 

The  average  number  of  wage-earners  employed  by  manufac- 
turing establishments  in  New  Jersey  during  1900  was  241,582 
(12.8  percent  of  the  total  population),  of  whom  8,042  were  children 
under  sixteen  years  of  age. 

The  greatest  number  employed  at  any  one  time  during  the 
5^ear  was  307,933,  or  16.3  per  cent  of  the  total  population. 

The  total  number  of  manufacturing  and  mechanical  estab- 
lishments in  New  Jersey  was  15,481.  Of  these,  11,115,  or  71-8  per 
cent,  were  located  in  forty-four  cities  and  towns.  The  urban  estab- 
lishments employed  196,901  wage-earners,  or  81.5  per  cent  of  the 
total  number  employed.      The  list  of  industries   includes  "hand 


198  Tlic  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 

trades."  Omitting  them,  the  total  number  of  manufactures 
proper  was  8,308. 

The  manufacture  of  textiles  is  the  most  important  industry 
in  the  state.  Of  these  the  silk  factories  employed  24,157  wage- 
earners  out  of  a  total  of  46,932  engaged  in  textile  work. 

Foundry  and  machine-shop  products  are  second,  with  17,918 
wage-earners. 

Refining  and  petroleum  third,  with  8,288. 

Tobacco  has  3,595,  pottery  8,117,  tanning  4,178,  chemicals 
3,048,  rubber  2,609,  jewelry  2,779,  sewing  machines  4,701,  glass 

5.383- 

The  fifteen  leading  industries  of  the  State  embraced  1,780  es- 
tablishments, and  employed  an  average  of  117,008  wage-earners 
■during  the  year  1900. 

Average  number  of  children  under  sixteen  years,  employed  in 
New  Jersey  manufactories  during  the  year  1900  (U.  S.  Census 
Bulletin  No.  157)- 

Boots  and  shoes 192 

Brass  wire 65 

Bakeries    64 

Buttons     71 

Carpets   86 

Clothing    191 

Cotton  goods 641 

Dyeing  and  finishing  textiles    70 

Fireworks 85 

Foundry  and  machine  shops 212 

Canning    86 

Gas  and  lamp  fixtures 181 

Glass   850 

Hardware 80 

Hosiery  and  knit  goods 152 

Iron  and  steel 65 

Linen  goods 316 

Pocket-books 60 

Pottery 193 

Printing    174 

Roofing 74 

Shirts    50 

Silk 1 .  199 

Stamped  ware 119 

Surgical  appliances 75 

Tobacco    183 


CJiild  Labor  in  N'czv  Jersey 

Woolen  goods 1S7 

Worsted   goods 456 

6,177 
Miscellaneous   industries i  ,865 


199 


8,042 

Comparison  of  the  reports  of  the  United  States  Census,  and  of 
the  New  Jersey  Factory  Inspectors,  for  the  year  1900,  in  regard  to 
children  employed  in  certain  industries  in  eleven  cities  in  New 
Jersey : 


Census 
Reports. 

Bayonne — Petroleum 21 

Camden — Worsted  goods 160 

Elizabeth — Tobacco   o 

"             Clothing  and  shirts 9 

"             Sewing  machines o 

Hoboken  and  Jersey  City — Silk 60 

Hoboken — Clothing    g 

Jersey    City — Clothing     3 

"         "         Electrical  apparatus 

"         Printing     

"         "         Soap  

"         Tobacco 

"         Boxes o 

Newark — Boots  and  shoes loS 

Carpentering 65 

Clothing    82 

Corsets     34 

Foundry  and  mechanical  shops 52 

Hardware    75 

Jewelry    36 

Leather 22 

Stamped  ware    .- 116 

Tobacco 19 

Thread    o 

New  Brunswick — Tobacco 29 

Orange — Hats    ;  .  .  27 

Passaic — Woolen  goods 98 

Paterson — Silk    S3  2 

Foundries 91 

Trenton — Iron  and  steel 54 

"            Potteries 118 

Rubber 28 

Bakeries    19 


Factory 

Inspectors' 

Reports. 


fi3 
30 


22 
60 


25 
16 
21 

87 
44 


17 


16 
13 


35 
100 

45 

5 

15 

504 


204 
47 
47 


Child  Labor  in  Belgium 


By  E.  Dubois,  Professor  in  the  University  of  Ghent 


(201) 


CHILD  LABOR  IX  BELGIUM  ' 


B}^  E.  Dubois 
Professor  in  the  University  of  Ghent 


The  industrial  census  of  October  31,  1S96,  of  which  the  com- 
plete results  have  just  been  published",  furnishes  the  most  recent 
and  the  most  complete  information  regarding  the  extent  of  the 
industrial  labor  of  children  and  the  general  conditions  under  which 
i   exists. 

Upon  that  date,  out  of  a  total  of  671,596  laborers  of  all  ages 
and  both  sexes,  employed  in  the  manufactures  i:)roperly  so  called, 
and  excluding  the  domestic  workshops,  there  were  76,147  children 
less  than  sixteen  years  of  age  working  in  factories  and  workshops — 
that  is  to  say,  out  of  every  100  employees  eleven  were  less  than 
sixteen  years  of  age. 

The  child  labor  was  found  principally: 

(i)   In  the  textile  industries  11,863. 

(2)  In  the  mining  industries  10,167,  of  whom  5,516  are  em- 
ployed in  underground  labor,  and  4,651  in  surface  labor. 

(3)  In  the  manufacture  of  clothing  for  men  and  women  9,674'. 

(4)  In  the  glass  industries  4,429. 

Among  4,681  establishments  and  contractors  employing  both 
adults  and  children,  and  having  at  least  ten  employees:  1,737 
(37.1  per  cent)  employed  less  than  10  per  cent  of  children  along 
with  adults;  1,675  (35.9  per  cent)  employed  from  11  to  25  per 
cent  of  children  along  with  adults;  821  (17.3  per  cent)  employed 
from  26  to  50  per  cent  of  children  along  with  adults;  361  (7.9  per 
cent)  employed  from  51  to  100  per  cent  of  children  along  with 
adults;  87  (1.8  per  cent)  emploj-ed  more  than  100  per  cent  of 
children  along  with  adults. 

There  are,  hence,  in  eighty-seven  establishments  more  children 
than  adults.  These  concerns  belong  chiefly  to  the  textile  industries 
(26),  to  the  tobacco  industries  (10),  books  (8),  clothing  (7),  manu- 

1  Translated  from  the  French  by  D.  E.  Martell,  Ph.  D.,  late  Fellow  in  Romanic  Languages, 
University  of  Pennsylvania. 

-Eighteen  volumes  published  by  the  Minister  of  Industry  and  Labor  (Brussels,  1900  and 
1901)  .■  We  draw  the  greater  part  of  these  references  from  "General  Statement  of  Methods  and 
Results  of  the  Census"  (Brussels,  1902),  which  this  pubhcation  completes. 

(203) 


204  The  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 

facture  of  chocolate  (6).  One  woolen  mill  and  two  dressmakers 
employ  only  children. 

The  statistics  of  the  children  according  to  age  is  as  follows: 

Number  of  children  aged  less  than  sixteen,  76. 147 — 50,493 
boys,  25,654  girls;  number  of  children  from  fourteen  to  sixteen, 
54,946 — 36,431  boys,  18,515  girls;  number  of  children  from  twelve 
to  fourteen,  20,762 — 13,814  boys,  6,948  girls;  number  of  children 
less  than  twelve,  439 — 248  boys,  191  girls.  About  one-half  of  these 
children  less  than  twelve  years  old  belong  to  the  manufacture  of 
clothing  (dressmakers  and  cutters). 

The  census  has  succeeded  in  determining  the  length  of  actual 
labor  (recess  deducted),  for  61,652  children  employed  in  the  indus- 
trial establishments,  not  including  the  coal  mines.  Rather  more 
than  one-tenth  of  them  (about  7,000)  work  nine  hours  and  less. 
One-third  (about  21,000)  work  about  ten  hours.  One-third  (about 
19,000)  work  about  ten  and  a  half  to  eleven  hours.  One-fourth 
(about  15,000)  work  more  than  twelve  hours.  The  days  of  more 
than  eleven  hours  are  most  frequent  in  the  textile  and  clothing 
manufactures. 

Under  the  head  of  time  of  labor:  61,314  children  (38,414  boys 
and  22,900  girls)  work  during  the  day  only  (92.99  per  cent); 
thirty-six  children  (boys)  work  only  at  night  (0.02  per  cent),  4,611 
children  (4,238  boys  and  373  girls)  work  alternately  by  day  and 
night  (6.99  per  cent).  The  majority  of  these  night  laborers  are 
employed  in  the  glass  industries,  viz.:  3,262.  Then  comes  the 
iron  industry  with  657  children,  and  the  confectionery  factories 
with  447. 

Regarding  the  coal  mines,  the  duration  of  labor  has  been  de- 
termined for  9,153  children  out  of  10,167.  Among  these  9,153 
children,  7,772  work  during  the  day  only  (5, 5  50  boys  and  2,222  girls); 
4,482  (3,281  boys  and  1,201  girls)  work  ten  hours  and  less;  2,855 
(1,900  boys  and  955  girls)  work  ten  to  ten  and  a  half  hours;  308 
(246  boys  and  62  girls)  work  ten  and  a  half  to  eleven  hours;  127 
(123  boys  and  4  girls)  work  more  than  eleven  hours;  4,827  boys 
and  9  girls  work  underground.  Working  only  at  night  are 
1,357  boys  (no  girls);  and  in  gangs  24  boys.  Almost  the  whole 
number  of  the  "underground"  boys  work  about  ten  hours  or  less, 
between  the  descent  and  the  ascent. 

One  of  the  great  merits  of  the  Belgian  industrial  census  of 
1896  is  the   particular  care  which  was  taken  in  gathering  exact 


Child  Labor  in  Belgijim  205 

statistics  regarding  the  individual  wages  of  the  whole  of  tlie  work- 
ing population.  The  statistics  of  the  wages  of  the  Belgian  work- 
men, by  their  completeness  and  exactness,  are  certainly  of  the  best 
existing  to-day.  They  have  succeeded  in  ascertaining  the  wages 
of  70,688  young  workpeople  (45,577  boys  and  25,111  girls). 

Number  of  children  working  by  the  day:  with  wages  less  than 
0.50  fr.,  17,229  =  24.37  per  cent;  7.Sii  boys  (of  which  2,844  receive 
no  pay);  9,718  girls  (of  which  6,141  receive  no  pay);  from  0.50  to 
1. 00  fr.,  21,192  =  29.98  percent;  12,748  boys  and  8,444  girls;  from 

1  to  1.50  fr.,  19,723  =  27.91  per  cent;  15,090  boys  and  4,633  girls; 
1.50  fr.  and  over,  12,544=  i7-74  percent;  10,228  boys  and  2,316 
girls. 

In  rovmd  figures  one  may  say  that  one-fourth  of  these  young 
employees  earn  nothing  or  less  than  0.50  fr. ;  a  little  more  than  half 
earn  from  0.50  to  1.50  fr. ;  and  less  than  one-fifth  earn  more  than 
1.50  fr.      In  fact  about  two-thirds  of  the  latter  earn  from  1.50  to 

2  fr.,  and  one-third  from  2  to  2.50  fr.  These  percentages  relate 
to  the  entire  number  of  children,  and  would  be  modified  somewhat 
if  the  boys  and  girls  were  considered  separately.  The  figures  also 
show  that  smaller  wages  are  paid  for  female  than  for  male  labor. 

The  Laiv  of  December  13,  1889 

The  statutes  affecting  child  labor  in  industrial  establishments 
have  been  under  consideration  in  Belgium  since  1843.  At  that 
time  an  investigation  conducted  by  the  government  unveiled  the 
unfortunate  and  often  abusive  conditions  un  er  which  child  labor 
was  conducted,  and  a  scheme  of  very  remarkable  legislation  was 
drawn  up  by  M.  Ducpetiaux,  chairman  of  the  Investigation  Com- 
mission. 

But  this  project  was  premature.  Manchesterian  ideas  were 
still  the  prevalent  ones  in  the  country  and  with  the  government. 
Reform  was  still  to  be  waited  for,  for  almost  a  half-century  longer, 
in  spite  of  the  repeated  efforts  of  divers  groups  of  enlightened 
manufacturers,  of  physicians,  of  philanthropists.  All  these  united 
efforts  succeeded  simply  in  causing  to  be  introduced  into  the  royal 
decree  of  April  28.  1884,  containing  regulations  concerning  the 
working  of  mines,  an  article.  No.  69,  which  forbade  boys  aged  less 
than  twelve,  and  girls  less  than  fourteen,  to  be  allowed  to  labor  in 
the  mines. 


2o6  The  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 

The  industrial  troubles  of  1886,  and  the  efforts  of  the  Labor 
Commission  instituted  the  same  year,  prepared  at  last  the  solution 
to  the  question,  and  led  to  the  law  of  December  13,  1889,  upon  the 
labor  of  women,  of  youths  and  of  children  in  industrial  establish- 
ments.^ 

This  law  placed  under  restrictive  measures  the  labor  of  chil- 
dren: 

(i)   In  mines  (coal  and  metal),  quarries,  stoneyards. 

(2)  In  works,  mills  and  factories. 

(3)  In  establishments  classified  as  dangerous,  unhealth}^  or 
unsuitable;  as  well  as  in  those  where  steam  boilers  or  machine 
motors  were  used. 

(4)  In  harbors,  terminals  and  stations. 

(5)  In  transportation  by  land  or  wa.ter. 

It  applied  both  to  public  and  private  establishments,  even 
when  they  were  of  an  educational  or  benevolent  character.  By 
virtue  of  this  provision  the  law  regulated,  for  example,  the  labor 
performed  by  children  in  the  reform  schools,  in  the  lace-making 
schools,  etc. 

The  law  did  not  affect  the  family  workshops,  where  only  the 
members  of  a  family  are  employed,  under  the  authority  of  either 
the  father,  the  mother,  or  the  guardian;  providing,  however,  that 
these  workshops  were  not  classed  as  dangerous,  unhealthy  or  un- 
suitable," or  that  work  therein  was  not  performed  with  the  aid  of 
steam  boilers  or  machine  motors. 

It  also  did  not  affect,  according  to  the  admitted  official  inter- 
pretation, other  workshops  which  could  not  be  regarded  as  mills 
or  factories,  or  which  are  not  classed  among  the  dangerous,  un- 
healthy or  unsuitable  establishments.  Hence,  the  greatest  portion 
of  the  clothing  factories,  which  employ  a  great  deal  of  child  labor, 
escaped  the  application  of  the  law. 

The  principal  legal  provisions  applying  to  children  and  youths 
of  less  than  sixteen  years  are  the  following: 

^A  penal  law  of  May  28,  18S8,  relative  to  the  protection  of  children  employed  in  the 
itinerant  professions,  forbids  the  feats  of  strength  and  dangerous  exercises,  inhuman,  or  of  a 
nature  to  affect  the  health  of  children  and  youths  under  eighteen,  employed  by  those  who 
carry  on  the  profession  of  acrobats  and  mountebanks,  etc. 

*  There  exists  a  special  regulation  which  puts  under  authorization  and  special  watchful- 
ness those  industrial  establishments,  which,  by  their  nature,  threaten  the  safety,  health  and 
convenience  of  the  public,  or  offer  certain  dangers  to  the  health  and  safety  of  the  workmen 
who  are  employed  there.     These  establishments  are  known  as  "Classified  Establishments." 


Cliild  Labor  in  Belgium  207 

(i)  Prohibition  to  employ  at  labor  children  under  twelve 
years  of  age  (Art.  2). 

(2)  The  King  can  prohibit,  or  only  authorize  under  certain  con- 
ditions, the  employment  of  children  and  youths  under  sixteen,  at 
labor  that  is  beyond  their  strength,  dangerous  or  unhealthful 
(Art.  3). 

(3)  The  length  of  the  working  day  is  twelve  hours  at  the  most, 
divided  by  recesses,  the  total  of  which  shall  not  be  less  than  one 
and  a  half  hours. 

The  King  has  the  authority  to  regulate  the  length  of  the  work- 
ing da3%  as  well  as  the  length  and  the  conditions  of  recess,  in 
accordance  with  the  nature  of  the  occupations  in  which  the  children 
are  employed,  and  the  needs  of  the  industries,  professions  or  trades. 
(Art.  4)/ 

(4)  Night  labor,  that  is  to  say,  labor  after  nine  o'clock  in  the 
evening  and  before  five  in  the  morning,  is  prohibited  to  children 
and  youths  under  sixteen  (Art.  6). 

Exceptions,  (a)  The  King  can  authorize  the  employment  of 
children  at  night,  at  occupations  which,  by  reason  of  their  nature, 
cannot  be  interrupted  or  retarded,  or  which  cannot  be  accomplished 
except  within  a  definite  period. 

(b)  As  relating  to  labor  in  mines,  the  King  can  authorize  night 
labor  by  a  certain  class  of  workmen  more  than  fourteen  years  of  age, 
also  by  male  children  fully  twelve  A^ears  old,  to  begin  their  labor  at 
four  a.  m.  (c)  The  governors  of  provinces,  acting  upon  the  report 
of  the  inspectors  of  suitable  labor,  can  authorize  night  labor  for 
children  and  youths,  in  all  industries  or  trades,  in  cases  of  delay 
resulting  from  unavoidable  necessity,  or  in  exceptional  circum- 
stances. This  authorization  cannot  be  granted  for  more  than  two 
months  at  most ;  but  it  can  be  renewed.  It  must  be  approved  by 
the  Minister. 

(5)  Children  and  youths  under  sixteen  cannot  be  emploj'ed  at 
labor  more  than  six  days  in  the  week  (Art.  7).  This  regulation 
provides  for  the  Sunday  holiday,  but  the  legislation  of  1889  did  not 
intend  expressly  to  forbid  Sunday  labor.  Indeed  in  1889  the  point 
was  discussed  whether  the  Belgian  Constitution  (Art.  15)  did  not 
oppose  the  legal  prohibition  of  Sunday  labor.  Even  to-day  the 
question  is  still  in  controversy.  Hence  the  law  of  1889  solved  the 
difficulty  by  merely  forbidding  children  to  labor  more  than  six 
days  in  the  week.     In  fact  Sunday,  the  seventh  day,  is  the  day  of 


2o8  The  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 

rest.  There  are,  however,  certain  Exceptions:  (a)  As  regards  the 
industries  in  which  labor,  by  reason  of  its  nature,  cannot  stand 
either  interruption  or  delay,  the  King  can  authorize  the  employ- 
ment of  children  over  fourteen,  during  seven  da3^s  in  the  week, 
whether  permanently  or  temporarily,  or  conditionally.  They 
must,  however  be  granted,  in  every  case,  the  necessary  time  to 
devote  to  their  religious  duties  once  a  week,  as  well  as  one  complete 
day  of  rest  in  fourteen. 

(b)  In  case  of  unavoidable  necessity,  the  inspectors,  burgo- 
masters and  governors  can,  with  respect  to  the  industries,  au- 
thorize the  employment  on  the  seventh  day  of  children  and  youths 
under  sixteen. 

(6)  In  order  to  facilitate  the  enforcement  of  these  legal  provis- 
ions, children  and  youths  over  sixteen  must  carry  a  memorandum 
book,  which  is  to  be  given  them  gratis  l5y  the  parish  administration; 
and  which  must  contain  their  Christian  and  surnames,  date  and 
place  of  their  birth,  their  residence,  and  the  full  names  with  resi- 
dence either  of  their  parents  or  guardians.  Likewise  the  heads  of 
the  industries,  chiefs  or  managers,  must  keep  a  registry  of  the  same 
information  that  appears  in  the  memorandum  books  (Art.  lo). 

The  Belgian  laws,  in  their  principal  provisions  which  we  have 
just  exaiTiined,  resemble  for  the  most  part  the  laws  regulating  child 
labor  in  other  countries.  But  there  is  a  gap  which  must  have  struck 
the  reader,  viz.:  the  absence  of  provisions  for  the  education  of 
children.  Foreign  laws,  and  notably  the  German,  English  and- 
French  laws,  require  that  the  children,  whose  industrial  labor  is 
effectively  regulated,  should  devote  to  attendance  at  school  the 
time  which  they  do  not  spend  in  the  factory  or  workshop.  This 
is  done  in  the  interests  of  their  welfare  and  for  their  intellectual  and 
moral  developinent.  The  legislator  only  imperfectly  fulfills  his 
mission  when  he  confines  himself  to  preventing  and  repressing 
the  abuses  of  industrial  labor. 

This  defect  in  the  Belgian  law  is  due  to  the  opposition  that 
compulsory  education  has  met  with  and  still  meets  among  a  notable 
part  of  the  population  and  among  the  majority  in  Parliament. 

In  order  that  the  statement  of  legislation  may  be  complete, 
the  author  has  collected  in  a  table  the  provisions  of  the  royal 
decrees  which  have  resulted  from  Articles  4,  6  and  7  of  the  law,  and 
which  concern  the  determination  of  the  duration  of  daily  labor  and 
the  conditions   of  recess  in  a  number  of  industries  (Art.  4) ;  the 


Child  Labor  in  Belgium  209 

exceptions  to  the  prohibitions  of  night  labor  (Art.  6),  and  tlie 
authorizations  of  work  on  the  seventh  day  (Art.  7).    (See  page  2 10.) 

Art.  3  of  the  law  gives  the  King  the  power  to  prohibit  or  to 
regulate  the  labor  of  children  or  youths  under  sixteen,  in  certain 
industries  particularly  unhealthful  or  dangerous. 

The  royal  decrees  of  February  19,  1895,  August  5,  1895,  and 
April  5,  1S98,  have  applied  this  legal  provision  in  the  following 
manner : 

(i)  Prohibition  of  labor  of  children  and  youths  under  sixteen 
in  sixty-five  industries,  enumerated  in  Articles  i  and  2  of  the  decree 
of  February  19,  1895.  These  industries  are,  for  the  most  part, 
the  chemical  ones,  or  those  which  manufacture  injurious  products. 

(2)  In  the  lucifer-match  factories: 

(a)  The  labor  of  children  and  youths  under  sixteen  is  pro- 
hibited where  paste  containing  white  phosphorus  is  made,  or  in  the 
factories  where  matches  dipped  in  such  paste  are  dried.  Such 
labor  is  also  prohibited  where  matches  are  dipped  in  white  phos- 
phorus. 

(b)  Children  under  fourteen  may  not  be  employed  in  filling 
boxes  with  white  phosphorus  matches  (Article  3  of  the  royal  de- 
cree of  February  19,  1895). 

(3)  In  factories  where  india-rubber  is  treated  with  carbon 
sulp buret,  the  presence  and  the  labor  of  children  and  youths 
under  sixteen  are  prohibited  (Art.  4  of  the  same  decree). 

(4)  Art.  6  enumerated  a  series  of  industries  in  which  certain 
places  are  closed  to  children  and  youths  under  sixteen,  because  of 
the  injurious  and  unhygienic  character  of  the  labor  performed  there. 
Art.  7  prohibits  the  admission  into  certain  places  and  labor  therein 
of  children  under  ''ourteen. 

(5)  The  royal  decree  of  August  5,  1895,  regulates  the  employ- 
ment of  children  in  rag-shops. 

(6)  Finally,  by  force  of  a  royal  decree  of  April  5,  1898  (inter- 
calated into  the  decree  of  February  19,  1895,  Art.  5)  it  is  for- 
bidden to  employ  children  and  youths  under  sixteen  in  all  places 
where  the  treatment  of  hare  and  rabbit  skins  is  performed;  in  all 
places  where  the  hare  and  rabbit  skins  are  prepared  before  the  treat- 
ment ;  also  in  all  processes  which  the  skins  undergo  after  the  treat- 
ment, carr3ang,  brushing,  cutting. 

In  order  to  give  a  full  account  of  the  extent  of  the  regulation 
of  child  labor  in  Belgium,  it  was  necessary  to  consider  in  detail  the 


210 


The  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 


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law  of  1889  and  the  provisions  of  the  various  decrees  of  which  we 
have  just  spoken.  Let  us  see  now  how  the  law  and  the  regulations 
are  applied: 

The  Application  of  the  Law. 

In  order  to  insure  the  application  of  the  law  and  to  watch  its 
execution,  Article  12  prescribes  the  appointment  of  ofhcials  by  the 
government,  whose  powers  shall  be  determined  by  royal  decree. 

At  first  the  inspection  of  labor  was  vested  in  ofificers  already 
charged  with  other  powers.  This  system,  condemned  by  experience 
in  other  lands,  did  not  give  good  results,  and  a  special  body  of  labor 
inspectors  was  organized  by  a  royal  decree  of  October  22,  1895. 

According  to  this  decree,  the  inspection  of  labor  and  the  ob- 
servance of  the  execution  of  the  law  of  1889  in  the  mines,  quarries 
and  metallurgic  works  is  committed  to  the  engineers  of  the  mines. 
For  all  other  industries,  the  service  of  labor  inspection  is  attached 
to  the  Labor  Bureau. 

This  service  comprises: 

(i)  Inspectors  of  labor  in  the  central  administration,  residing 
at  Brussels.  These  officers  are  six  in  number:  two  inspectors- 
general,  three  labor  inspectors  and  one  female  inspector. 

(2)  Inspectors  and  deputies  residing  in  the  country.  There 
are  actually  eight  labor  inspectors  in  the  provincial  service  and  six 
deputies.  The  country  is  divided  into  nine  districts,  and  the  de- 
partments of  inspection  have,  on  the  last  occasion,  been  defined  by 
a  ministerial  decree  of  December  16,  1899. 

(3)  Finally,  a  certain  number  of  medical  inspectors  are  charged 
specially  with  watching  over  the  application  of  the  rules  with  refer- 
ence to  the  healthfulness  and  safety  of  the  workshops. 

The  labor  inspectors  not  only  have  charge  of  the  execution  of 
the  law  of  1889,  but  also  of  the  laws  on  the  payment  of  wages,  the 
regulations  of  factories,  etc.  They  make  an  annual  report,  and 
their  reports  have  been  published  regularly  since  1895,  and  from 
them  information  must  be  secured  concerning  the  law's  execution, 
even  though  the  reports  are  often  incomplete  and  unmethodical. 

I  will  refer  here  particularly  to  the  last  report  published,  that 
of  1900 : 

The  law  of  1889  was  not  applied  seriously  until  1895,  following 
the  reorganization   of   inspection.     Since   then  progress  has  been 


Child  Labor  in  Belgium  219 

made,  but  it  is  incontestable  that  in  several  of  its  provisions  the  law 
is  not  applied  as  it  should  be  in  all  parts  of  the  country.  The  press 
and  Parliament^, have  several  times  pointed  out  this  unsatisfactory- 
situation. 

The  inspectors  certainly  perform  their  complicated  and  delicate 
work  with  fidelity.  But  they  are  too  few  in  number  to  fitly  dis- 
charge their  numerous  duties.  The  opposition  or  the  ill-will  of  the 
manufacturers  is  still  too  frequent;  and  when  the  inspectors  wish 
to  apply  the  law  and  enforce  its  respect,  they  do  not  always  find  the 
support  which  they  should  have  among  their  superior  ofticers. 

In  certain  industries,  c.  g.,  glass  and  hand-made  brick,  which 
employ  a  considerable  number  of  children,  the  application  of  the 
law  is  particularly  to  be  desired.  It  is  true  these  industries  have 
peculiar  economic  characteristics.  There  has  already  been  intro- 
duced a  regulation  less  severe  for  the  brick- works,  and  certain  miti- 
gations are  being  asked  for  the  glass  industry. 

Too  many  children  are  still  permitted  to  labor  before  having 
reached  the  legal  age  of  twelve  years.  The  inspector  for  the  district 
of  East  Flanders  (Ghent)  announces  that  the  number  of  children 
under  twelve  found  in  the  industrial  establishments  was  particu- 
larly numerous  in  1900.  He  found  seventy- five  such  in  his  district 
in  ten  hosiery  factories,  two  tobacco  factories,  one  lace-making 
school,  one  mechanical  weaving  mill,  one  jute  mill,  one  sugar  re- 
finery. (Report  1900,  pp.  88,  89.)  In  some  other  districts  the 
situation  is  better,  according  to  this  report,  but  almost  everywhere 
violations  are  still  observed,  as  well  as  the  complicity  of  parents. 
"  Families  in  need  often  make  all  efforts  and  use  all  sorts  of  devices 
to  cause  their  children  under  age  to  be  admitted  to  labor."  (Report, 
p.  143.)  It  happens  that  the  regulation  note-books  requiring  the 
entry  of  the  child's  age  contain  false  declarations,  or  they  are 
delivered  to  the  children  under  age  b}-  the  civic  authority.  (Report, 
p.  127.)  Moreover,  these  note-books  are  often  missing,  and  the 
registries  which  the  masters  should  keep  do  not  always  come  up  to 
the  demands  of  the  law. 

A  royal  decree  of  December  26,  1892,  as  we  have  said,  or- 
ganizes the  system  of  half-time — six  hours  of  work — for  children 
of  twelve  to  thirteen,  employed  in  the  textile  industries  other  than 
the  woolen  industry.     This  system  has   not  given  good  results. 

*  See  particularly  the  discourse  of  M.  Renkin.  Catholic  Deputy  of  Brussels,  proceedings  of 
June  13  and  July  2,  1901. 


220  The  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 

The  manufacturers  prefer  to  do  without  children  under  thirteen, 
rather  than  adopt  this  special  organization.  In  the  works  which 
have  adopted  this  system,  the  child  does  not  benefit  from  it  at  all. 
"After  having  worked  six  hours  in  the  morning  at  the  spinning  or 
weaving  of  linen,  the  parents  send  that  child  to  complete  the  day's 
labor  at  a  chairmaker's,  at  picking  rags,  or  in  a  preserved  fruit  and 
vegetable  factory,  where  the  law  does  not  protect  him  any  longer 
within  the  same  limits.  Moreover,  if  he  does  not  work  in  the  after- 
noon, he  roams  around  the  streets  and  becomes  vicious,  the  school 
refusing  to  admit  as  pupil  a  child  who  can  only  attend  half  the 
time."     (Report,  p.  65.) 

This  confirms  what  was  said  above,  concerning  the  defect 
in  the  Belgian  law,  which  contains  no  regulations  for  the  instruction 
of  children  whose  labor  it  limits. 

On  several  occasions  the  labor  inspectors  have  called  attention 
to  the  necessity  of  extending  the  application  of  the  law  to  the  work- 
shops which  are  not  included,  and  especially  to  the  clothing  and 
millinery  shops,  which  freely  employ  numerous  children.  They 
ask,  in  every  case,  that  the  legislator  should  state  more  clearly  and 
precisely  than  the  actual  interpretation  of  the  law  does,  the  dis- 
tinction between  the  workshops  subject  to  the  law  and  those  that 
are  not.     (Report,  pp.  3,  66.) 

Finally,  the  inspectors  think  that  it  is  necessary  to  revise  and 
to  simplify  the  royal  decrees,  the  complications  of  which  give  rise 
to  many  difficulties.  This  revision  is,  by  the  way,  at  present  under 
consideration.      (Report,  pp.   3,   44.) 

From  what  precedes,  we  may  conclude  that,  except  certain 
desirable  ameliorations  and  simplifications,  Belgium  possesses  a  law 
comprising  what  is  needed  for  the  protection  of  children  employed 
in  the  industries,  and  a  law  regardful  of  the  many  interests  of 
industry.  The  most  iihportant  present  problem  is  to  secure 
general,  strict  and  complete  execution  of  the  legal  provisions. 
Nothing  is  more  demoralizing,  from  the  social  point  of  view,  than 
to  possess  laws  to  which  officials  either  cannot  or  will  not  compel 
obedience. 


Machinery  and  Labor 


By  Henry  White,  General  Secretary,  United    Garment  Workers 

of  America 


(221) 


MACHINERY  AND  LABOR 


By  Henry  White 
General  Secretary,  United  Garment  Workers  of  America 


This  subject  is  one  which  involves  the  whole  industrial  problem. 
It  is  the  complexity  of  conditions  due  to  the  introduction  of  ma- 
chinery whicli  has  caused  the  wide  differences  of  opinion  upon  the 
question  of  wealth  distribution.  Under  the  simpler  methods  of 
industry  the  manner  in  which  the  proceeds  of  labor  were  divided 
was  readily  understood;  to-day,  however,  the  system  is  so  highly 
organized  that  there  is  much  confusion  as  to  its  operations.  The 
perplexity  is  so  great  that  many  who  see  in  labor-saving  inventions 
some  malign  purpose,  and  others  again  who  discern  that  any  means 
which  enhances  the  productiveness  of  labor  must  benefit  mankind, 
are  unable  to  comprehend  the  manner  by  which  that  result  is 
effected.  The  habit  of  judging  the  operations  of  so  complex  a 
system  by  the  effect  upon  special  interests  instead  of  viewing  it  as  a 
whole,  accounts  for  the  common  misconception  regarding  the 
function  of  machinery. 

If  people  were  to  consider  how  meagre  would  be  the  rewards 
of  toil  without  the  aid  of  machinery,  how  costly  the  necessities  of 
life,  and  how  small  the  purchasing  power  of  the  laborer,  its  uses 
would  soon  become  apparent.  The  confusion  is  heightened  by  the 
dual  relation  which  a  person  occupies  as  a  producer  and  as  a  con- 
sumer. As  a  consumer  he  benefits  almost  at  once  by  every  saving 
in  effort,  while  as  a  producer  his  means  of  a  livelihood  may  in  con- 
sequence be  threatened.  The  laborers  thrown  out  of  work  by  a 
machine  or  even  the  merchant  forced  out  of  business  through  some 
combination  cannot  be  expected  to  appreciate  the  beneficence  of 
such  economy.  In  both  cases  their  horizon  is  limited  to  their  own 
means  of  a  livelihood.  When  a  person  finds  his  occupation  sud- 
denly gone,  it  outweighs  all  other  considerations;  and  unmindful  of 
the  benefits  he  may  have  received  from  similar  economies  in  other 
trades,  inventions  to  him  seem  a  curse.  The  rewards  of  the  par- 
ticular invention  which  distresses  him  go  to  the  body  of  consumers 
and  he  only  shares  indirectly  as  one  of  them.  In  the  case  of  the 
wage-workers  the  gain  is  not  evident  as  it  is  with  the  manufacturer 

(223) 


224  The  Amials  of  the  American  Academy 

who  first  utilizes  an  invention,  and  consequently  their  views  on  the 
subject  will  differ  correspondingly.  It  is  regrettable  that  even 
the  temporary  disadvantages  of  industrial  progress  should  fall 
heavily  upon  some  to  the  advantage  of  others,  but  it  is  as  unavoida- 
ble as  friction  is  to  motion.  The  suft'ering  can  be  mitigated  only  in 
proportion  as  our  knowledge  of  the  methods  of  industry  increases, 
by  recognizing  the  inevitableness  of  the  changes  and  preparing  to 
meet  them. 

Economic  laws,  like  the  laws  of  nature,  admit  of  no  excep- 
tions. Were  discriminations  possible  the  consequences  would  make 
the  present  hardships  seem  nothing  in  comparison.  In  fact,  society 
would  quickly  disintegrate  and  revert  to  its  primitive  state.  If 
society  had  to  wait  for  the  sanction  of  every  person  before  a  for- 
ward step  could  be  taken  it  would  never  start.  In  the  process  of 
adjustment  and  readjustment  which  progress  implies,  it  is  unavoid- 
able that  some  have  to  be  forced  out  of  old  grooves  and  made  to 
fit  into  new  ones.  It  is  this  adaptability  to  change  which  charac- 
terizes rrtodern  enterprise;  this  willingness  to  suffer  immediate 
discomforts  for  the  achievement  of  larger  ends. 

The  general  confusion  as  to  the  service  rendered  by  machinery 
is  not  strange  considering  the  absurd  notions  which  are  rife  regard- 
ing the  rudiments  of  social  economy.  No  distinction  is  usually  made 
between  useful  and  useless  labor.  There  is  supposed  to  be  only 
a  given  amount  of  work  to  be  done,  and  hence  the  less  each  one 
does  the  more  jobs  there  will  be  to  go  around.  If  wealth  be  wasted 
or  destroyed,  it  will  in  some  mysterious  manner  be  replaced.  The 
destruction  of  property  by  fire  or  flood  is  regarded  with  compla- 
cency by  those  not  directly  affected,  upon  the  supposition  that 
more  work  is  thereby  provided,  without  taking  into  account  that 
the  wealth  raquired  to  replace  it  must  be  diverted  from  some  pro- 
ductive use.  The  spending  or  circulating  of  money  is  equivalent 
to  creating  wealth.  Luxury  is  looked  upon  with  more  favor  than 
frugality,  and  it  is  even  thought  that  gambling  benefits  a  commu- 
nity as  much  as  industry  because  the  fortunate  ones  spend  freely, 
and  the  misery  which  it  begets  is  lost  sight  of  in  contemplation  of 
the  profits  of  a  few.  With  such  erroneous  ideas  entertained  even 
by  educated  people,  it  is  apparent  why  the  complex  operations  of 
our  industrial  system  are  so  slightly  understood.  The  expansion  of 
industry  which  follows  labor-saving  devices,  the  creation  of  new 
industries  and  the  consequent  replacing  of  those  displaced  is  un- 


Machinery  and  Labor  225 

intelligible  to  all  save  those  that  comprehend  economic  principles. 
In  addition  to  the  popular  misconceptions  of  the  subject,  there  are 
historic  causes  which  have  created  this  antipathy  to  machinery. 
During  the  transition  from  the  domestic  to  the  factory  system  in 
England,  machinery  became  a  club  to  subjugate  the  laborer.  Un- 
tutored, unorganized,  without  any  resisting  power,  the  former 
independent  artisan,  now  a  factory  hand,  was  placed  in  brutal 
competition  with  his  fellows,  and  every  invention  only  served  to 
add  to  his  helplessness.  The  plight  of  the  English  laborers  at  that 
time  abundantly  shows  that  there  are  circumstances  in  which  the, 
wealth  of  a  nation  may  increase  tremendously,  the  productive 
power  of  labor  multiply  many-fold,  while  the  workers  on  the  other 
hand  become  impoverished  and  brutalized.  Mill  was  of  the  opinion 
that  machinery  had  not  benefited  the  working  class,  but  happily, 
since  the  time  in  which  he  wrote,  education  and  organization,  two 
indispensable  factors  in  their  advancement,  have  come  to  their  aid. 
An  upward  trend  has  in  consequence  taken  place,  and  the  stimulus 
which  it  has  given  will  make  a  relapse,  owing  to  the  advances  in 
sanitary  science,  as  improbable  as  another  visitation  of  a  plague. 
Where  the  workers  have  succeeded  in  acquiring  some  independ- 
ence, in  raising  their  standard  of  living,  machinery,  despite  the 
drawbacks  described,  has  undoubtedly  become  a  potent  factor  in 
the  elevation  of  their  class. 

Under  a  collective  system  the  immediate  benefits  which 
would  be  derived  by  each  individual  through  labor-saving  inven- 
tions are  its  chief  merit,  but  to  compare  the  good  features  of  an 
imaginary  social  system  with  the  disadvantages  of  the  existing 
one  is  not  an  easy  task.  It  can,  however,  be  shown  that  this 
desired  co-operative  principle  actually  does  work  out  at  the  present 
time  in  a  rough  way  by  the  distribution  of  the  benefits  of  inventions 
throughout  society  and  that  there  are  possibilities  for  a  more  per- 
fect application  of  it. 

As  to  the  workers'  share  in  production,  Karl  Marx  in  his  in- 
cisive analysis  comes  to  the  conclusion  that  the  value  of  commodi- 
ties is  based  upon  the  labor  cost  plus  the  profits  of  the  capitalist 
and  in  that  he  is  in  accord  with  the  authorities  upon  social  science 
since  Adam  Smith.  He  deduces  from  that,  that  labor  alone  rep- 
resents the  actual  wealth  which  is  exploited  for  profit  by  the  capi- 
talist and  that  the  very  capital  invested  was  previously  appropriated 
from   the   laborer.     Granting  this   conclusion,  Marx   should   have 


226  The  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 

made  allowance  for  the  competition  between  capitalists  by  which 
the  price  of  commodities  is  kept  within  certain  limits  and  the 
benefits  of  cheaper  production  are  given  to  the  consumers.  In 
the  cases  Marx  deals  with,  cheaper  production  unfortunately  did 
not  only  mean  more  economical  methods,  but  lower  wages  and  long 
hours  and  the  sacrifice  of  the  worker,  while  the  consumer  repre- 
sented some  one  else  than  the  operative,  who  barely  subsisted  on  his 
pittance.  Without  the  ability  to  purchase  the  goods  he  produced, 
England  had  to  dispose  of  in  foreign  markets  that  wdiich  should 
have  been  consumed  at  home,  always  the  best  market.  Her  chief 
dependence  being  upon  outside  markets,  everything  had  to  be 
subordinated  to  cheaper  production,  no  matter  how  obtained. 

Concerning  the  attitude  of  trades  unions  upon  the  question  of 
machinery,  the  membership  being  composed  of  men  with  the  usual 
abilities,  their  views  do  not  materially  differ  from  others.  Having, 
however,  the  benefits  of  an  education  derived  from  a  close  study 
of  economic  problems  and  an  experience  which  has  helped  therti 
form  broader  opinions,  they  are  gradually  reconciling  themselves 
to  machinery.  As  for  example  the  action  taken  at  the  late  con- 
vention of  the  American  Federation  of  Labor  held  at  Scranton.  In 
a  resolution  introduced  by  the  delegates  of  the  Cigar  Makers'  In- 
ternational Union  requesting  that  a  certain  firm  be  declared  unfair, 
there  was  reference  to  a  cigar-making  machine  used  in  the  shop  of 
this  employer.  Although  the  machine  was  mentioned  as  an  evi- 
dence only  of  the  inferiority  of  the  product  of  the  concern,  a  vigor- 
ous objection  was  at  once  raised  by  the  delegates  against  any 
m,ention  of  the  use  of  machinery  by  the  firm.  In  the  debate  which 
followed,  it  was  argued  that  the  convention  could  not  afford  to  go 
on  record  as  against  labor-saving  devices  and  that  any  attempt  to 
oppose  them  would  prove  futile.  The  objectionable  words  were 
stricken  out  by  a  decisive  vote.  As  to  what  action  the  conven- 
tion would  have  taken  if  the  delegates  had  thought  it  possible  to 
suppress  the  machine  is  a  question.  The  decision  of  the  conven- 
tion, however,  has  brought  the  movement  to  a  point  in  which  the 
members  will  be  enabled  to  take  a  more  liberal  and  complete  view 
of  the  subject,  and  realize  that  the  limitation  of  work  is  not  only 
impolitic,  but  that  by  increasing  their  capacities  the  opportunity 
is  afforded  for  them  to  insist  upon  a  fair  share  in  the  larger  prod- 
duct.  The  British  unions  have  not  advanced  in  that  respect  as 
far  as  the  American  unions  because  the  habits  of  the  working 


Mad  lit  I  cry  and  Labor  227 

people  there  are  more  set,  but  circumstances  have  also  changed 
''■ery  much  their  attitude  toward  machinery. 

The  Typographical  Union  is  a  notable  example  of  a  union 
which  accepted  a  revolutionizing  invention  as  being  inevitable, 
and  thus  succeeded  in  securing  a  rate  of  wages  for  the  operators 
considerably  in  excess  of  that  received  by  the  hand  compositors. 
An  officer  of  the  New  York  Union  estimates  that  each  linotype 
machine  introduced  into  the  newspaper  offices  displaced  three 
men,  and  that  within  three  years,  owing  to  the  increase  in  the  size 
of  the  newspapers  and  the  larger  demand  for  printed  matter  which 
it  encouraged,  the  men  laid  off  have  been  re-employed,  and  that 
to-day  the  pay-rolls  even  exceed  the  former  figure.  This  machine 
has  also  had  the  effect  of  elevating  the  standards  of  the  craft,  owing 
to  the  higher  skill  and  education  required.  The  competition 
among  the  employers  is  such  that  profits  are  reduced  to  a  minimum, 
the  public  therefore  receiving  the  full  benefit  of  the  improvement. 

In  the  building  trades,  similar  results  are  also  noted.  Im- 
proved methods  have  led  to  a  prodigious  expansion  in  building 
operations.  The  laborer's  w^ork  is  now  largely  done  by  mechanical 
means,  and  parts  of  a  structure,  such  as  the  trimmings,  are  made 
in  factories  and  are  only  fitted  together  upon  the  premises.  The 
subdividing  of  the  work  is  carried  on  to  an  extent  that  a  number 
of  contractors,  each  performing  a  distinct  function,  co-operate  in  the 
completion  of  a  single  building.  When  this  specializing  began  and 
the  ingenious  hod-hoisting  device  made  it  unnecessary  for  men  to 
make  beasts  of  burden  of  themselves,  a  general  alarm  was  created 
over  the  prospect  of  great  numbers  of  workmen  being  thrown  out 
of  employment.  To-day  a  far  greater  number  of  men  are  steadily 
employed  in  this  fundamental  industry  than  at  any  time  in  its 
history. 

Examples  of  this  kind  can  be  cited  indefinitely  to  demonstrate 
the  larger  results  which  flow-  from  greater  economy  in  effort. 
Allowances  are  seldom  made  for  the  enterprises  which  could  not 
be  carried  on  at  all  w^ere  it  not  for  labor-saving  methods. 

The  lowering  of  the  cost  of  commodities  enables  the  average 
person  to  indulge  in  w^hat  were  formerly  considered  luxuries,  and 
by  this  encourages  the  development  of  new  industries.  The 
tendency  under  the  influence  of  machinery  is  for  industry  to 
spread  out  fan-shape,  ever  widening  as  the  distance  from  the  starting 
point  increases.     Were  it  not  for  the  limitations  set  by  the  pur- 


228  Tlie  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 

chasing  capacity  of  the  people  and  the  periodical  disarrangements 
or  panics  which  occur  as  a  result  of  what  is  conveniently  termed 
over-production,  there  would  be  no  check.  To  fear  a  surfeit  of 
wealth  seems  absurd  considering  the  needs  of  the  average  person. 
What  is  meant  by  over-production  is  the  inability  to  buy  what  has 
been  produced. 

Russia  with  her  immense  population  is  unable  to  consume 
the  products  of  her  few  mills,  while  in  the  United  States,  where 
the  efficiency  of  labor  is  higher  than  anywhere  else  and  is  being  in- 
creased at  a  marvelous  rate,  not  t-o  speak  of  the  half-million  aliens 
absorbed  every  year,  the  percentage  of  unemployed  is  lower  than 
it  has  been  for  years,  and  even  less  than  during  the  earlier  part  of 
our  history  when  manufacturing  was  in  its  infancy. 

To  increase  the  purchasing  capacity  of  the  people  either  by 
higher  wages  or  cheaper  products  is  to  reduce  the  surplus  and  main- 
tain an  equilibrium,  hence  the  economic  value  of  higher  standards 
of  living.  Production  cannot  be  greater  than  the  ability  of  the 
average  person  to  consume,  any  more  than  water  can  rise  higher 
than  its  source,  therefore  increased  production  must  be  accom- 
panied by  the  same  increase  in  consumption,  if  normal  conditions 
are  to  be  maintained.  No  matter  to  what  extent  machinery, 
division  of  labor  or  economy  in  management  may  be  perfected 
theoretically,  the  demand  for  labor  ought  not  to  be  diminished. 
The  eight-hour  work  is  advocated  by  many,  not  because  of  the 
personal  benefit  to  the  workman,  but  upon  the  same  grounds  that 
they  would  favor  the  curtailment  of  production,  in  the  belief  that 
it  would  increase  the  number  of  the  employed.  By  decreasing  the 
average  amount  of  work  done  in  order  that  it  may  be  distributed 
more  evenly  may  accomplish  that  object  temporarily,  but  if  gen- 
erally practiced  would  decrease  the  demand  for  w^ork  through  the 
increase  of  the  price  of  the  commodity. 

It  is  doubtful  if  workmen  in  a  particular  craft  have  ever 
succeeded  for  a  length  of  time  in  erecting  a  wall  around  themselves 
and  preventing  as  many  extra  men  as  could  be  employed  from 
getting  in  if  the  emoluments  were  sufficient.  So  even  if  it  were 
possible  to  so  restrict  work  as  to  create  a  scarcity  of  workmen,  this 
pressure  from  without  would  prove  irresistible  and  the  normal  level 
would  be  maintained.  If  on  the  contrary  a  lack  of  work  would 
make  a  number  of  workmen  superfluous,  there  would  be  a  tendency 
for   them   to    find    their   way    into    growing    occupations.     Union 


Machinery  and  Labor  229 

regulations,  such  as  apprenticeship  rules,  can  and  do  prevent  undue 
crowding  into  a  trade  owing  to  a  sudden  and  temporary  demand 
which  would  prove  highly  injurious  unless  checked,  for  it  would 
serve  to  break  down  standards  upheld  by  the  union.  Through 
such  means  an  assimilation  of  those  entering  the  trade  is  gradually 
accomplished. 

Unions  have  been  frequently  charged  with  trying  to  restrict 
output.  The  same  accusation  has  also  with  equal  effect  been  made 
against  industrial  combinations  for  seeking  to  create  an  artificial 
scarcity.  In  many  cases  where  unions  endeavor  to  prevent  rush 
or  driving  work  injurious  to  the  worker,  they  have  been  accused 
of  limiting  work.  Such  restrictions  can  be  easily  defended.  That 
labor  organizations  have  in  some  instances  attempted  to  prevent 
the  use  of  labor-saving  appliances  there  can  be  no  question  consid- 
ering the  prevailing  ideas  on  the  subject,  and  organized  workmen 
can  give  force  to  their  opposition,  but  that  such  is  the  policy  of 
labor  movement  is  far  from  fact  as  I  have  just  illustrated.  The 
opposition  to  labor-saving  methods  is  not  confined  to  workmen 
alone,  for  employers  will  rail  against  competitors  able  to  give  better 
service  for  less  cost.  The  same  resentment  at  being  forced  out  of 
a  settled  occupation  is  entertained  by  all. 

The  actual  injury  done  by  machinery  is  caused  by  the  sudden- 
ness of  the  changes  that  result.  Since  there  could  be  no  way  of 
regulating  inventive  genius,  and  the  incentives  for  using  improve- 
ments will  remain  as  great,  the  rational  and  the  only  way  to  meet 
them  is  by  preparation.  The  working  class  suffers  most  because  it 
is  less  able  to  accommodate  itself  to  new  situations.  The  rising 
generation  should  be  better  equipped  with  a  general  knowledge 
of  mechanics,  and  taught  how  to  handle  tools  with  skill.  Such 
a  training  would  undoubtedly  relieve  the  difficulty  and  it  could 
only  be  adequately  supplied  by  the  public  schools.  The  results 
would  be  to  increase  the  independence  of  workmen,  as  they  would 
not  then  rely  upon  a  small  division  of  a  trade  or  upon  a  single 
employer.  Independence  and  higher  wages  go  together.  Un- 
skilled laborers  in  some  cases  learn  more  than  skilled  mechanics 
for  the  reason  that  workmen  trained  only  in  one  craft  are  usually 
unfitted  for  other  work,  while  those  accustomed  to  being  thrown 
upon  their  own  resources  are  more  adaptable. 

In  the  case  of  the  aged  workman  the  situation  is  specially  hard, 
as  he  cannot  find  any  place  in  an  industrial  system  in  which  alert- 


230  The  Anna  Is  of  the  Anicncan  Academy 

ness  counts  for  more  than  skill.  He  cannot  profit  by  accumulated 
experiences  as  others  do.  It  is  the  tragic  side  of  the  question,  this 
grievous  predicament  of  the  worker  who  has  spent  his  energies 
adding  to  the  nation's  wealth.  It  can  and  ought  to  be  overcome, 
not  by  any  system  of  alms-giving  which  must  always  prove  inade- 
C|uate,  not  by  retiring  him  to  idleness,  but  by  keeping  him  em- 
ployed at  such  work  as  his  long  training  and  peculiar  abilities 
fit  him  for.  As  his  earning  power  declines  at  a  certain  period,  some 
system  of  insurance  could  supply  the  deficiency. 

In  respect  to  the  material  advantages  of  machinery,  it  surely 
has  enlarged  the  capacities  of  the  people  and  multiplied  their 
opportunities.  The  possibilities  are  such  as  to  make  the  mind 
tremble  in  anticip)ation.  It  is  the  agency  which  alone  can  raise 
wages,  reduce  the  working  time  and  enhance  the  buying  power  of 
money — a  threefold  gain. 

The  feeling  against  machinery  will  not  cease  until  the  work- 
man profits  more  directly  as  a  producer  as  well  as  a  consumer,  until 
he  is  treated  as  a  human  being  and  not  as  a  mere  animated  tool, 
until  he  becomes  more  than  a  tender,  an  incident  in  production. 
The  human  element  must  become  more  evident  and  the  toiler 
made  to  feel  his  partnership.  The  true  mission  of  machinery 
would  then  be  revealed  to  all  as  the  only  means  which  liberate 
man  from  drudgery,  increase  his  control  over  nature  and  provide 
the  leisure  essential  to  a  higher  culture. 

One  of  the  acknowledged  evils  of  machinerv  is  the  exploitation 
of  child  labor  which  usually  follows  its  introduction.  Such  was 
the  case  in  England,  and  we  find  it  repeated  to-day  in  the  new 
industrial  districts  of  the  South.  In  such  industries  where  the 
repetition  of  a  small  mechanical  process  enables  child  labor  to  be 
employed,  the  temptation  to  take  advantage  of  the  opportunity  is 
great ;  for  children  have  no  rights  to  assert,  no  wage  scale  to  uphold 
or  working  time  to  protect.  In  that  respect  child  labor  is  akin  to 
slave  labor.  It  must  be  added  for  fairness  that  the  capitalists 
utilizing  such  opportunities  are  not  alone  to  blame,  for  short- 
sighted and  grasping  parents  often  drive  their  children  into  the 
mills  because  of  the  paltry  sum  which  can  be  added  to  the  family 
income,  and  in  time  they  get  into  the  habit  of  depending  upon  the 
pittance  purchased  at  so  terrible  a  price. 

The  inducement  of  a  "plentiful  supply  of  cheap  labor"  is  also 
held  out  to  capitalists  by  small  communities  as  a  means  of  per- 


Machinery  and  Labor  231 

suading  them  to  locate  factories  in  their  neighborhood.  These 
are  the  two  chief  obstacles  in  the  way  of  reform.  In  course  of 
time,  however,  as  the  consequences  become  more  evident  and  the 
exultation  over  tliQ  establishment  of  a  new  factory  wears  off,  the 
public  conscience  revolts  against  this  debasement  of  the  helpless 
children  and  the  law  is  eventually  evoked  to  suppress  the  evil. 
The  strenuous  efforts  being  made  in  the  South  upon  the  part  of  the 
labor  organizations  and  sympathizers  to  enact  protective  laws 
lead  us  to  hope  that  we  will  at  least  be  spared  the  dreadful  ex- 
periences of  England  during  the  first  half  century  of  the  factory 
system. 


V.   Tendencies  of  Factory  Legislation  and 
Inspection  in  tlie  United  States 


By  Sarah  S.  Whittelsey,  Ph.D.,  New  Haven,  Conn. 


(233) 


TENDENCIES  OF   FACTORY  LEGISLATION  AND  INSPEC- 
TION IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 


By  Sarah  S.  Whittelsey,  Ph.D. 


The  introduction  of  the  factory  system  in  American  industry 
acted  in  this  country,  as  it  had  in  England,  to  develop  certain 
abnormal  conditions  of  labor  that  in  the  end  required  government 
iaterference.  Thus  in  the  ni'  mfacturing  states,  chiefly  in  the 
North  and  East,  there  has  coi-.e  into  existence  a  very  considerable 
body  of  factory  law.  The  enactment  of  such  regulative  statutes 
is  the  prerogative  of  each  of  the  several  states  acting  independently 
and  according  to  the  discretion  of  its  own  legislature;  in  conse- 
quence there  is  great  variety  in  these  laws  and  in  their  scope, — 
from  the  comparatively  complete  codes  of  Massachusetts  and  New 
York  to  absolutely  no  regulation  whatever. 

Present  Factory  Laws  of  the  United  States.^ 

"  In  all,  about  half  the  states  have  so  far  passed  what  may  be 
called  a  factory  act ;  that  is,  laws  for  the  regulation,  mainly  sanitary, 
of  conditions  in  factories  and  workshops.  These  include  . 
the  New  England  states  generally.  New  York  and  the  Northern 
Central  and  Northwestern  states  following  their  legislation.  There 
are  almost  no  factory  acts  in  the  South  nor  in  the  purely  agricul- 
tural states  of  the  West,  but  these  statutes  are  being  passed  rapidly 
and  moreover,  in  states  where  they  have  already  been  enacted,  are 
being  amended  every  year. 

"The  most  usual  statutes  are  those  making  provision  for 
proper  fire-escapes,  or  against  use  of  explosive  oils,  etc. ;  for  the 
removal  of  noxious  vapors  or  dust  by  fans  or  other  contrivances; 
requiring  guards  to  be  placed  about  dangerous  machinery,  belting, 
elevators,  wells,  air-shafts,  crucibles,  vats,  etc. ;  providing  that 
doors  shall  open  outward;  prohibiting  the  machinery  from  being 
cleaned  while  in  motion;   laws  to    prevent    overcrowding  and  to 

^  This  discussion  is  based  upon  the  Report  of  the  U.  S.  Industrial  Commission,  Vol.  V,  on 
Labor  Legislation. 

(235) 


236  The  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 

secure  sanitary  conditions  generally."*  Building  laws  also  re- 
enforce  these  measures. 

Antedating  such  factory  acts  proper,  the  same  states  have 
very  generally  pass  d  statutes  regulating  child  labor  and  forbidding 
employment  to  those  under  a  stated  age.  In  eleven  states  this  age 
limit  is  fourteen  years,  in  nine  over  twelve,  and  in  four, — New 
Hampshire,  Vermont,  Nebraska,  and  California, — ten  years;  eleven 
also  make  educational  provision  for  older  children  and  illiterate 
minors.^ 

The  majority  of  states  have  further  legislated  upon  the  hours 
f  labor  of  minors  ,  while  fifteen  limit  the  working  time  of  women 
as  well,  generally  to  sixty  hours  per  week,  but  in  Massachusetts  to 
fifty-eight  hours,  in  New  Jersey  to  fifty-five,  and  in  Wisconsin  to 
forty-eight.^  Eight  also  provide  for  time  for  meals,  and  five  pro- 
hibit night  work.*  Tliis  limitation  of  hours  for  women  and  chil- 
dren, considered  "wards  of  the  state,"  very  generally  necessitates 
a  similar  working  day  for  the  adult  male  laborer  in  the  factory, 
while  it  in  a  measure  avoids  the  serious  question  of  constitutionality 
that  a  broader  statute  could  not  fail  to  raise. 

"There  is  absolutely  no  limitation  for  persons  of  any  age  or 
sex  only  in  Iowa,  Kansas,  Oregon,  Nevada,  Washington,  Idaho, 
Montana,  Wyoming,  Utah,  Kentucky,  Arkansas,  Texas,  North 
Carolin^i,  Alabama,  Florida,  Mississippi,  New  Mexico,  Arizona,, 
Oklahoma,  and  the  District  of  Columbia."^ 

Besides  these  statutes,  other  laws  that  must  be  mentioned, 
as  immediately  affecting  the  interests  of  factory  labor,  are  those 
which  regulate  wage  payinent  and  fines,  also  the  employers'  lia- 
bikty   acts   which   allow   recovery   of   damages   for   bodily   injury 

'  Report  of  the  U.  S.  Industrial  Commission,  Vol.  V,  pp.  loo-ioi.       N.  H.,  Me.,  Mass.,  Vt.,. 
R.  I.,  Conn.,  N.  Y.,  N.  J.,  Penna.,  Ohio,  Ind.,  111.,  Mich.,  Wis.,  Minn.,  Neb.,  Del.,  Mo.,  N.  Dak., 
S.  Dak.,  Ga.,  La.,  D.  C,  Wash.,  Mont.,  Wy.,  Md.,  Cal.,  Tenn.     These  range  from  complete  acts,, 
like  those  of  N.  Y.  and  Mass.,  to  fire-escape  provisions  only,  as  in  N.  H.,  Me.,  Del.,  Va.,  Ga. 
etc.,  while  Ala.,  the  Carolinas,  etc.,  are  still  entirely  outside  of  the  group. 

^Childlahor — (14  yrs.)  Mass.,  Conn.,  N.  Y.,  Ind.,  111.,  Mich,  Wis.,  Minn.,  Col.;  (girls  14 
yrs.,  and  boys  12  yrs.),  N.  J.,  La.;  (13  yrs.),  Penna.,  Ohio;  (12  yrs.).  Me.,  R.  I.,  Wis.,  Md.,. 
W.  Va.,  N.  Dak.,  Tenn. 

3  Hours  of  labor. —  (Women  and  minors),  Mass.,  Me.,  N.  H.,  R.I.,  Conn.,  N.  Y.,  N.J.,. 
Penna.,  Wis.,  Neb.,  S.  Dak..  N.  Dak.,  Okla.,  Va.,  La.;  (Minors),  Ind.,  Vt.,  Ohio,  111,  Mich.. 
Minn.,  Cal.,  Md.,  Ga. 

*  Night  work  and  meal  hours. — N.  Y.,  Mass.,  Neb.,  Ind.,  Mich.;  (meal  hours).  La.,  Penna., 
Ohio. 

6  Ibid.,  p.  40. 


Tcndaicies  of  Factory  Lcgislatioji  and  Inspection  237 

sustained  in  service.  Thirteen  states  have  passed  laws  regulating 
the  period  of  payment  by  individuals  and  corporations,  and  nine 
others  stipulate  weekly  or  fortnightly  payments  by  corporations. 
Only  Massachusetts,  Indiana  and  Ohio  have  attempted  to  "pre- 
vent the  withholding  of  wages  or  the  imposition  of  a  fine  by 
factory  employers  for  imperfect  work." 

Outside  of  the  New  England  states  "anti-truck  acts,"  similar 
to  the  English  statute  and  stipulating  a  money  payment,  have  been 
passed  in  sixteen  states,  five  of  which,  however,  limit  its  application 
to  corporations.  It  may  be  noted  in  passing  that  several  of  these 
wage-regulating  laws  have  already  fallen  under  the  ban  of  the 
courts. 

Employers'  liability  statutes  supplement  the  factory  acts  by 
affoiding  additional  reason  for  care  on  the  part  of  the  employer  in 
guarding  dangerous  machinery  and  other  vvise  providing  for  the 
safety  of  those  in  his  employ.  Twenty-two  states  have  legislated 
upon  the  "fellow-servant"  question,  and  ten  make  employers  liable 
for  injury  caused  by  defective  machinery.  Of  these,  however,  only 
six  apply  in  full  to  factory  labor. 

The  states  that  have  passed  factory  acts  and  regulated  hours 
of  labor  "have  usually  created  one  or  more  factory  inspectors, 
charged  with  the  duty  of  seeing  that  the  statutes  are  carried  out 
generally  with  powers  to  enter  personally  or  by  deputy  and  to 
inspect  all  factories  at  any  time."  ' 

The  child  labor  laws  are  variously  entrusted  for  enforcement 
to  the  factory  inspectors,  school  committee  or  board  of  education, 
commissioners  o\  labor,  or  left  to  the  care  of  the  police. 

Historical  Development. 

It  may  seem  perhaps  that  such  a  sketch  fails  to  show  the 
underlying  or  directive  principle  of  this  legislation,  but  a  detailed 
study  of  the  laws  adds  confusion  rather  than  enlightenment.  Stud- 
nitz  considered  that  he  had  seized  upon  the  real  causal  force  and 
summed  up  the  situation  in  the  statement  that  American  labor 
legislation  has  been  determined  by  the  political  and  social  strength 
of  the  laborers  demanding  it,  rather  than  in  accordance  with  the 
natural  needs  and  varied  conditions  of  industry  within  the  states.^ 

*  Report  of  the  U.  S.  Industrial  Commission,  Vol.  V,  p.  loo. 

*  Studnitz  Nordamerikanische  Arbeiterverhiiltnisse. 


238  The  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 

Allowing  this  explanation  at  least  as  to  the  immediate  agency, 
we  must  nevertheless  recognize  the  fact  that  other  forces  are  at 
work  and  that  there  are  traceable  tendencies  of  a  natural  growth 
even  when  arbitrary  human  action  is  so  apparent.  The  most  casual 
acquaintance  with  the  history  of  labor  legislation  must  convince  us 
that  the  action  of  economic  law  has  inevitably  necessitated  the 
legal  regulation  of  labor;  and  this  really  in  spite  of  human  opposi- 
tion and  in  the  face  of  extreme  doctrines  of  non-interference. 
Industrial  labor  unregulated  has  everywhere  developed  the  same 
symptoms.  Competition  between  producers  tends  to  encourage 
all  possible  reductions  of  costs,  to  reduce  wages,  to  increase  the  use 
of  cheap  child  labor,  to  perpetuate  long  hours  of  labor,  etc.,  and  to 
range  the  interests  of  the  employing  class  against  those  of  the  oper- 
ative class.  In  the  struggle  which  results  from  this  antagonism 
the  employer  has  the  advantage  of  position  to  force  his  own  terms 
of  contract  upon  the  laborer,  for  he  has  in  his  hands  an  accumulated 
capital  which  is  equivalent  in  power  to  effective  organization. 
Such  conditions  left  to  work  themselves  out  have  invariably  acted 
to  degrade  the  social  status  of  labor,  the  heaviest  pressure  falling 
upon  those  who  could  least  resist  it.  This  was  the  experience  of 
England  first,  then  felt  on  the  Continent  and  in  this  country  in  the 
New  England  states  and  other  centres  of  manufacture,  and  to-day 
we  are  becoming  aware  of  like  tendencies  in  the  cotton-goods  indus- 
try of  the  South . 

It  was  almost  universally  the  evils  attending  child  labor  that 
evoked  the  first  acts  of  regulation.  But  although  abuses  were  very 
serious,  legal  remedies  were  most  timidly  applied.  Even  with  the 
example  of  the  successful  issue  of  the  English  laws  the  New  England 
legislatures  contented  themselves  with  the  passage  of  most  inade- 
quate measures,  measures  that  could  hardly  have  been  looked  upon 
as  anything  more  than  unenforcible  threats.  We  realize  how  com- 
plete a  change  of  attitude  toward  this  "intermeddling  legislation" 
has  been  brought  about  during  the  course  of  the  past  sixty  years 
when  we  compare  a  few  of  these  old  laws  with  those  to-day  in 
force.  Contrast,  for  example,  the  detailed  and  exacting  require- 
ments of  the  present  law  concerning  child  labor  in  Massachusetts 
with  the  older  Vermont  statute,  which  is  quite  typical  of  the  earlier 
order  and  "  merely  requires  the  selectmen  of  towns  to  inquire  into 
the  treatment  of  minors  employed  in  manufacturing  establish- 
ments; and  if  a  minor's  education,  morals,  etc.,  are  unreasonably 


Tendencies  of  Factory  Legislation  and  Inspection  239 

neglected,  or  he  is  treated  with  improper  severity  or  compelled  to 
labor  unreasonable  hours,  they  may,  if  he  has  no  parent  or  guardian, 
discharge  him  from  such  employment  and  bind  him  out  as  appren- 
tice with  the  minor's  consent."     (Vt.  2518.)' 

Early  measures  were  certainly  neither  severe  in  the  regulation 
imposed  nor  exact  in  defining  the  parties  held  to  be  responsible. 
They  generally  involved  a  question  of  volition,  making  "willful" 
transgression  alone  punishable,  and  thus  unenforcible  in  the 
letter,  were  given  into  the  hands  of  town  ofificials  who  had  neither 
the  power  nor  the  effective  desire  to  investigate  or  to  bring  suit. 

Such  enactments  stood  for  little  more  than  a  public  recognition 
of  abuses  which  they  in  no  wise  checked,  but  the  increasing  menace 
of  the  situation,  the  threat,  not  to  be  scorned,  of  a  future  sickly 
and  illiterate  labor  population,  forced  the  passage  of  more  adequate 
measures  and  the  resort  to  a  better  mechanism  of  enforcement  than 
that  of  town  officials  and  the  general  police.  In  such  reforms 
Massachusetts  took  the  lead,  enacted  and  repealed  several  contra- 
dictory statutes,  and  finally  by  the  slow  process  of  continued 
amendment  evolved  the  present  really  enforcible  law. 

We  feel  in  studying  the  halting  stages  of  this  development  not 
only  that  there  was  a  pardonable  ignorance  of  ways  and  means  in 
attacking  a  new  problem,  but  also  the  influence  of  a  more  or  less 
skeptical  public  opinion  concerning  this  policy  of  interference 
which  reflected  itself  in  hedging  clauses  that  weakened  and  some- 
times vitiated  what  would  otherwise  have  been  good  measures. 

In  spite  of  many  drawbacks  to  advance,  however,  there  was  no 
retrograde  motion,  but  a  continued  development  of  strictness  and 
detail  in  exactions,  of  clearer  definition  and  placement  of  respon- 
sibility and  of  more  adequate  provision  for  inspection.  As  these 
laws  gradually  demonstrated  their  practical  usefulness  and  con- 
vinced the  public  of  benefit  instead  of  harm,  the  former  attitude  of 
timidity  gave  place  to  a  decided  peremptoriness,  the  former  indis- 
criminate omnibus  ad  qiios  hae  litterce  pcrvcnerint  to  placed  respon- 
sibility. 

Meantime  the  way  was  opened  for  more  wide-reaching  regu- 
lations concerning  hours  of  labor,  work-room  conditions,  etc.,  and 
a  broader  conception  of  the  province  of  such  legislation  and  of 
that  which  might  be  considered  proper  subject  of  legal  interference. 

1  Industrial  Commission,  Vol.  V,  p.  48. 


240  The  Ajinals  of  the  American  Academy 

Whereas  the  first  attempts  to  protect  even  little  children  from  con- 
ditions that  imperiled  their  health  and  life  were  bitterly  opposed 
in  England  upon  grounds  of  national  policy,  to-day  we  find  statutes 
that  regulate  not  only  child  labor,  hours  of  labor,  factory  construc- 
tions and  the  use  of  machinery,  but  also  others  that  stipulate  times 
and  manner  of  wage  payment,  and  forbid  fines  in  dealings  with 
adult  male  employees.  And  this  has  come  to  pass  in  America 
where  "freedom  of  contract"  is  the  constitutional  right  of  every 
individual  citizen.  • 

Our  laws  have  indeed  very  steadily  progressed  from  measures 
of  simple  protection  to  detailed  regulation  of  conditions,  and  even 
to  the  securing  of  special  benefits  to  labor. 

This  broader  application  of  the  legal  remedy  has  been  accom- 
panied also  by  marked  territorial  extension,  following  the  gro^'th 
and  spread  of  manufactures.  Other  states  have  felt  the  necessity 
of  adopting  a  labor  code  and  have  naturally,  in  a  general  way, 
followed  the  forms  of  New  England  and  New  York.  They  range, 
however,  through  all  stages  of  incompleteness.  A  curious  phenom- 
enon constantly  appears  in  this  imitative  legislation.  When  a 
state  legislature  passes  a  new  labor  law,  or  revises  an  old  one,  it 
does  not  necessarily  adopt  the  latest  form  nor  that  which  has  proved 
to  work  most  satisfactorily  in  another  state,  nor  yet  a  combination 
of  choice  clippings  from  several.  A  state  legislature  is  generally 
perfectly  content  with  a  law  that  is  about  as  poor  as  the  average 
and  looks  forward  most  placidly  to  the  inevitable  train  of  amend- 
ments that  must  follow  in  its  wake.  By  this  I  do  not  mean  to 
criticise  in  the  least  the  enactment  of  less  strict  regulations  as  a 
lower  age  limit  or  longer  hours  of  labor,  which  may  be  proper  under 
given  local  conditions,  but  alone  the  continued  repetition  of  blun- 
ders and  faults  of  construction  that  have  elsewhere  proved  their 
character  and  their  power  to  nullify  the  intent  of  the  law.  For- 
tunately experience  proves  in  the  end  an  effective,  if  dear,  teacher 
and  one  of  the  lessons  that  it  ultimately  drives  home  is  that  even  a 
state  legislature  cannot  legislate  the  laws  of  nature  out  of  the 
world  arena.  As  Jevons  said,  "The  state  is  the  least  of  the  powers 
that  govern  us."  But  as  the  physician  through  his  knowledge  of 
medicine  and  physiology,  and  by  his  diagnosis  of  the  symptoms 
of  disease,  is  able  to  pit  law  against  law,  and  to  restore  health 
where  he  found  abnormal  conditions ;  so  the  statesman  who  under- 
stands the   social  order  and    the   tendencies   of    economic  forces 


Tendencies  of  Factory  Legis/ation  and  Inspection  241 

is  often  able  to  control  their  action.  In  either  case,  a  knowledge 
of  the  active  agencies  is  absolutely  necessary  to  the  solution  of  the 
problem.  The  recent  organization  of  bureaus  of  labor  statistics 
is  certainly  significant  in  this  connection.  To-day,  when  a  question 
of  labor  legislation  is  presented,  there  is,  in  many  states,  such  a 
qualified  advisory  body  to  whom  the  whole  matter  may  be  referred 
for  investigation  and  study,  and  whose  regular  duty  it  is  to  inquire 
into  and  report  upon  labor  and  industrial  conditions  within  the 
state.  This  indicates  a  growing  appreciation  of  the  necessity  of 
accurate  information  and  of  the  exercise  of  due  care  in  passing  acts 
of  regulation. 

Enforcement  by  hispection. 

The  problem  of  enforcement  of  these  laws  has  proved  even 
more  serious  than  that  of  their  enactment.  Labor  laws,  however 
good,  cannot  enforce  themselves.  It  may  appear  to  be  for  the 
laborer's  own  interest  to  report  violations  and  seek  the  legal  remedy, 
but  the  indisputable  fact  is  that  he  does  not  do  it.  Moreover,  not 
only  is  the  individual  laborer  often  not  in  a  position  to  do  so  safely, 
but  even  the  labor  union  shrinks  from  the  task.  The  whole  history 
of  the  movement  for  the  regulation  of  labor  shows  the  absolute 
necessity  of  efficient  inspection,  a  fact  which  has  unfortunately  been 
most  clearly  demonstrated  in  the  general  lack  of  such  inspection. 
In  nothing  do  the  states  differ  more  widely  than  in  their  provision 
for  inspection.  There  are  such  specifically  differentiated  depart- 
ments as  that  of  Massachusetts  or  New  York;  there  are  such  com- 
binations as  that  of  Connecticut,  where  a  single  inspector  with  two 
or  three  assistants  enforces  the  factory,  workshop  and  bake-shop 
acts,  while  the  Board  of  Education  is  charged  with  the  child  labor 
laws ;  and  there  is  dependence  alone  upon  the  general  police  force. 

Inspection  always  lags  too  far  behind  legislation  and  has 
given  some  ground  of  credit  to  the  often-repeated  criticism  that 
this  labor  legislation  is  not  in  fact  intended  seriously,  but  has  been 
entered  upon  the  statute  books  rather  to  still  the  clamor  of  agitators 
for  reform  than  to  effect  any  real  change  in  conditions.  It  is  cer- 
tain at  least  that  the  serious  effectiveness  of  these  laws  develops 
■in  exact  proportion  with  the  inspecting  power, — with  the  organiza- 
tion, number  and  qualification  of  inspectors.  If  the  charge  of 
insincerity,  however,  had  been  true,  we  might  expect  to  find  that  the 


242  Tlie  Annals  of  the  America}!  Academy 

better  the  laws  became,  the  stronger  the  pressure  that  would  be 
brought  against  the  development  of  costly  inspection.  The  legal 
remedy  being  given,  is  it  not  the  privilege  of  the  individual  to  avail 
himself  of  it,  rather  than  the  duty  of  the  state  to  force  it  upon  him? 
On  the  contrary,  however,  the  history  of  inspection  runs  parallel 
and  in  the  same  direction  with  that  of  the  legislation  just  reviewed. 
The  same  economic  and  social  forces  that  were  the  raison  d'etre  of 
these  laws  have  quite  as  distinctly  and  steadily,  though  more  slowly, 
created  the  supplementary  machinery  of  enforcement.  The  unre- 
liable and  haphazard  inspection  of  town  officials  has  passed  entirely,, 
superseded  by  the  inspector  whose  sole  duty  is  inspection,  in 
which  duty  he  is  aided  by  assistants  immediately  under  his  own 
command,  or  by  members  of  other  departments  of  government. 
The  tendency  towards  the  development  of  distinct  inspection 
departments  is  c^uite  unmistakable  though  the  exact  form  of  their 
future  organization  is  less  easily  predicted.  There  are  two  toward 
which  present  forms  lean,  one  exemplified  in  Massachusetts,  the 
other  in  New  York. 

In  Massachusetts  the  inspectors  are  organized  as  a  division  of 
police,  under  the  chief  of  police  as  chief  inspector,  exactly  as  the 
detective  division,  for  instance.  That  of  New  York  is  a  separate 
and  distinct  body  under  a  chief  appointed  by  the  governor  to  hold 
that  single  office. 

The  question  is  therefore  raised  as  to  whether  organic  connec- 
tion with  the  police  department  or  separate  and  distinct  autonomy 
is  the  more  practical  and  advantageous  form.  It  is  conceded  that 
Massachusetts  has  developed  the  most  efficient  corps  of  inspectors 
in  this  country,  but  this  cannot  at  present  be  taken  as  conclusive 
proof  of  policy,  because  Massachusetts  was  earlier  in  the  field,  and 
because  opposing  obstacles  were  hardly  so  serious  as  those  met  in 
New  York.  Further,  such  connection  with  the  police  department 
in  Massachusetts  seems  to  have  been  largely  due  to  local  conditions 
and  to  have  grown  out  of  measures  dictated  by  immediate  con- 
venience at  the  time  of  the  passage  of  the  early  child  labor  laws, 
rather  than  a  deliberately  chosen  system  of  administration.  A 
clipping  from  the  history  of  the  department  will  make  this  clear. 

"At  first  the  unreliable  mechanism  of  truant  officers  and  local 
town  or  city  officials  was  solely  depended  upon  for  inspection. 
Then,  under  new  child  labor  statutes,  a  single  deputy  was  in  each 
case  detailed  by  the  police  department  to  aid  enforcement  (1866, 


Tendencies  of  Factory  Legislation  and  Inspection  243 

c.  273 ;  1867,  c.  285).  The  law  of  1877  (c.  214),  increasing  the  duties 
of  factory  inspection  by  regulations  looking  to  the  safety  of  em- 
ployees, provided  that  members  of  the  State  Detective  Depart- 
ment should  act  as  inspectors  of  factories  and  public  buildings,  to 
report  and  prosecute  violations  of  this  act  as  well  as  of  other 
measures  relative  to  the  employment  of  women  and  minors. 
In  1879  (c.  305),  the  governor  was  authorized  to  appoint  two  regular 
inspectors  from  the  police  department. 

"Better  administration  was  finally  secured  in  1888  (c.  113),. 
by  separating  the  detective  and  inspecting  forces.  .  .  .  With 
the  enactment  of  stringent  steam-boiler  inspection  laws,  a  new 
department  of  boiler  inspectors     .     .     .     was  created." 

While  in  some  ways  this  affiliation  with  the  police  has  been 
helpful,  there  are  also  drawbacks  in  the  combination  under  one 
head  of  work  in  fields  that  are  so  large  and  so  distinctly  marked  off 
from  one  another  not  only  in  object,  but  most  essentially  in  methods 
of  work.  It  would  seem  that  a  due  co-operation  between  district 
departments  could  be  made  to  afford  all  of  the  advantages  of  the 
closer  relationship ,  while  it  would  insure  the  whole  time  and  energy 
of  the  chief  to  a  task  that  is  quite  enough  to  occupy  his  entire 
attention.  Indeed,  with  the  increasing  number  and  detail  of 
regulations,  the  many  technicalities  that  arise  in  the  application  of 
labor  laws  and  the  rapid  growth  of  the  factory  system  of  industry, 
another  specialist  will  soon  be  demanded  to  fill  such  an  office.  The 
necessary  increase  in  numbers  alone  must  make  the  police  connec- 
tion awkward. 

In  framing  many  of  these  laws,  for  example  the  factory  acts, 
much  has  necessarily  been  left  to  the  discretion  of  inspectors  in 
the  decision  of  wiiat  is  "adequate"  provision.  Especially  where 
appliances  not  contemplated  in  the  ordinary  law  are  offered,  very 
careful  judgment  is  called  for.  Such  powers  cannot  be  entrusted 
to  untrained  and  inexperienced  persons,  however  well  intentioned, 
nor  is  the  training  of  police  duty  any  sufficient  preparation.  It 
would  not  be  considered  appropriate  to  appoint  a  policeman 
inspector  of  stationary  steam  boilers  or  examiner  of  engineers,  yet 
under  present  factory  laws,  technical  knowledge  of  industrial  pro- 
cesses, machinery,  etc.,  is  sometimes  equally  demanded.  In 
Massachusetts  the  original  method  of  detailing  police  as  inspectors 
when  occasion  demanded,  or  even  permanently  installing  them  in 
these  positions,   has  been  abandoned  for  the   stricter  and  more 


244  '^^'■'^  Annals  of  the  Aiucrican  Academy 

adequate  tests  of  civil  service  examinations  open  to  all  applicants. 
And  again  her  example  indicates  a  general  trend. 

The  tendency  in  inspection  already  is,  and  in  the  future  must 
be  more  markedly,  toward  the  growth  of  a  distinct  and  specialized 
department,  in  which  the  chief  and  his  assistants  are  trained  for 
their  work.  Such  a  department,  while  it  would  not  stand  in  the 
relationship  which  some  at  present  hold  to  the  police,  would  come 
into  closer  touch  with  other  departments,  as  the  Board  of  Educa- 
tion and  Bureau  of  Labor. 

Uniform  Labor  Legislation. 

The  influence  of  state  boundary  lines  upon  the  course  of  legis- 
lation in  this  country  is  an  interesting  question,  and  one  upon  which 
entirely  diverse  opinions  are  held.  Some  go  so  far  as  to  claim  that 
there  never  can  be  really  successful  legislation  so  long  as  such 
boundaries  hold ;  that  if  a  good  labor  law  is  passed  in  one  state  and 
enforced  there,  the  benefit  that  may  result  to  the  few  operatives  is 
balanced  by  the  restriction  which  it  puts  upon  the  producer  and 
the  consequent  discrimination  against  capital  in  that  state  as 
compared  with  its  neighbors.  Capital  therefore  seeks  investment 
in  those  sister  states  instead  of  in  the  law-trammeled  one,  thus 
reacting  against  the  interests  of  the  labor  market  there;  while 
states  that  so  profit  in  their  freedom  are  the  more  loath  to  give 
over  their  advantage  by  enacting  similar  measures.  Thus  legisla- 
tion in  one  state  becomes  at  once  detrimental  to  its  own  industrial 
interests,  and  a  check  upon  legislation  elsewhere.  Loud  protests  of 
this  tenor  were  heard,  for  example,  in  Massachusetts  a  few  years 
ago,  when  at  a  time  of  business  depression  the  cotton  mills  suffered 
from  the  competition  of  Southern  rivals.  A  somewhat  extended 
study  of  the  situation  at  that  crisis,  however,  failed  to  show  that 
these  detrimental  consequences  had  followed  in  actual  life,  or  that 
the  stress  felt  by  the  mills  could  have  been  removed  by  a  suspen- 
sion of  the  laws  complained  of. 

On  the  other  hand,  when  we  begin  to  reckon  with  the  difficulties 
that  must  be  encountered  in  any  attempt  to  legislate  upon  labor 
conditions  in  this  country  treated  as  a  whole  (even  disregarding 
entirely  the  present  constitutional  impediment),  we  find  arguments 
showing  that  local  self-government  has  probably  furthered  the 
development  of  labor  legislation.     In  the  first  place,  it  is  much 


Tendencies  of  Factory  Legislation  and  Inspection  245 

more  difficult  to  persuade  a  body  with  such  wide  jurisdiction  to 
pass  what  must  often  be  experimental  measures  and  may  endanger 
national  interests.  Suppose,  however,  that  this  legislation  was 
undertaken,  it  would  be  well-nigh  impossible  to  frame  a  measure 
that  would  apply  with  justice  throughout  and  in  communities  where 
industrial  occupations  differ  entirely  in  kind,  or,  if  of  like  order, 
range  through  many  stages  of  development.  It  would  mean  that 
such  legislation  must  conform  to  a  very  low  margin  of  production 
in  order  to  avoid  injury  to  states  where  conditions  are  backward,  and 
that  would  leave  unregulated  much  that  has  clearly  shown  need 
of  regulation  in  states  wdiere  there  is  higher  organization  of  industry. 
Would  it  not,  in  fact,  be  absolutely  necessary  to  mark  out  terri- 
torial divisions  that  might  not  of  course  follow  state  boundaries, 
but  would  not  in  the  end  differ  essentially  from  them  in  character? 
Again,  such  divisions  mapped,  what  an  impossible  labor  is  put  upon 
the  central  body  if  it  would  legislate  wisely  for  the  several  sections! 
Would  it  not  be  necessary  at  least  to  appoint  some  advisory  body 
to  study  the  local  needs  of  each  section  and  to  report  recommending 
appropriate  measures?  In  the  end,  what  would  we  have  in  the 
least  better  than  the  present  system? 

Within  a  single  state  the  labor  interest  is  united,  the  pros  and 
cons  of  the  situation  can  be  more  easily  investigated,  effects  more 
easily  watched  and  even  more  accurately  predicted.  Jevons  might 
indeed  have  considered  it  a  well-fitted  laboratory  for  his  scientific 
experimentation  in  legislation.  The  success  of  a  local  experiment 
acts  often  as  an  incentive  to  labor  elsewhere  to  demand  like  privi- 
leges, and  as  against  the  argument  of  an  insignificant  tax  upon 
production,  the  political  power  of  the  labor  party  has  very  generally 
won  the  day.  The  second  state  feels  itself  at  no  greater  disadvan- 
tage than  that  which  took  the  initiative  in  the  movement,  and 
may  easily  take  the  precaution  of  passing  restrictions  that  are  a 
trifle  under  those  of  its  neighbor. 

This  discussion,  however,  leaves  us  still  face  to  face  with  aeon- 
fusion  of  loc^l  regulations,  among  which  there  is  total  lack  of  any 
uniformity.  The  situation  has  for  some  time  attracted  public  com- 
ment, and  there  is  a  growing  desire  for  uniformity  especially  in  the 
protection  of  child  labor  and  in  the  curtailment  of  the  hours  of 
labor,  which  are  the  regulations  that  particularly  affect  the  interests 
of  capitalists.  Quixotic  attempts  to  force  an  amendment  of  the 
Constitution,  and  to  secure  the  passage  of  a  national  eight-hour- 


246  TJie  Annals  of  the  America?!  Academy 

■day  law,  have  been  chronicled  in  the  movement,  which  neverthe- 
less, with  more  moderate  aims,  has  steadily  gathered  strength. 
At  last,  under  the  Industrial  Commission  of  1898,  the  problem  of 
uniform  legislation  has  been  clearly  recognized  and  carefully 
studied,  "in  order,"  the  act  reads,  "to  harmonize  conflicting  inter- 
■ests  and  to  be  equitable  to  the  laborer,  the  employer,  the  producer 
.and  the  consumer"  (Sec.  3).  Empowered  to  report  with  recom- 
mendations either  directly  to  Congress  or  to  the  several  state 
legislatures,  the  Commission  addressed  itself  in  this  "matter  of 
domestic  law"  to  the  state  legislatures.  The  report  submitted  is 
of  such  interest  and  importance  that  I  quote  in  full  its  recommen- 
dations so  far  as  they  apply  to  factory  labor : 

"Perhaps  the  subject  of  greatest  public  interest  to-day  is  that 
'Of  the  regulation  of  the  hours  of  labor  permitted  in  industrial 
occupations,  and  especially  in  factories.  .  .  .  Obviously 
Congress  has  no  power,  without  a  constitutional  amendment,  to 
legislate  upon  this  subject.  The  Commission  are  of  the  opinion 
that  a  uniform  law  upon  this  subject  may  wisely  be  recommended 
for  adoption  by  all  the  states.  We  believe  that  such  legislation 
cannot,  under  the  federal  and  state  constitutions,  be  recom- 
mended as  to  persons,  male  or  female,  above  the  age  of  twenty-one, 
except,  of  course,  in  some  special  industries,  where  employment 
for  too  many  hours  becomes  positively  a  menace  to  the  health, 
safety,  or  well-being  of  the  community;  but  minors,  not  yet 
clothed  with  all  the  rights  of  citizens,  are  peculiarly  the  subject 
of  state  protection,  and  still  more  so,  young  children. 

"The  Commission  are  of  the  opinion,  therefore,  that  a  simple 
statute  ought  to  be  enacted  by  all  the  states,  to  regulate  the  length 
of  the  working  day  for  young  persons  in  factories  (meaning  by 
young  persons'  those  between  the  age  of  majority  and  fourteen); 
and  in  view  of  the  entire  absence  of  protection  now  accorded  by  the 
laws  of  many  states  to  children  of  tender  )"ears,  we  think  that  em- 
ployment in  any  capacity  or  for  any  time,  under  the  age  of  four- 
teen, should  be  prohibited.  The  question  of  shops  and  mercantile 
establishments  generally  appears  even  more  subject  to  local 
conditions  than  that  of  factories;  therefore  the  Commission  see  no 
need  for  even  recommending  to  the  states  any  uniform  legislation 
upon  this  subject.  But  child  labor  should  be  universally  protected 
by  educational  restrictions,  providing  in  substance  that  no  child 
may  be  emplo3^ed  in  either  factories,  shops,  or  in  stores  in  large 


Tendencies  of  Factory  Legislation  and  Inspection  247 

•cities,  who  cannot  read  and  write,  and  except  during  vacation,  unless 
he  has  attended  school  for  at  least  twelve  weeks  in  each  year."' 

These  are  certainly  conservative  recommendations  and  illus- 
trate again  the  difficulty  of  finding  any  common  ground  of  action 
even  in  the  fundamental  requirements  of  health  and  education. 
The  exception  made  with  reference  to  shops  and  mercantile  estab- 
lishments upon  the  ground  of  local  differences  in  conditions  is 
interesting.  So  much  evidence  has  been  brought  of  abuse  of  child 
labor  in  the  mercantile  houses  of  many  large  cities,  especially  in 
respect  to  these  two  matters  of  overwork  through  long  hours  and 
of  interference  with  common-school  education  (above  recognized) 
that  several  states  have  voluntarily  extended  provisions  of  the 
factory  laws  concerning  minors  to  cover  such  establishments. 
These  conditions  appear  to  reproduce  themselves  with  remarkable 
similarity  in  various  locations,  and  it  is  not  altogether  clear  what 
local  conditions  could  intervene  to  make  the  universal  application 
of  the  measure  proposed  for  factories  undesirable. 

Notwithstanding  all  moderation  and  the  exceptions  allowed, 
two  of  the  commissioners  still  recorded  themselves  as  considering 
it  "unjust  and  impracticable  to  attempt  any  uniform  laws  regu- 
lating labor  in  all  the  states,"  and  a  third  concurring  with  these 
adds  that,  "the  conditions  to  be  dealt  with  will  work  themselves  put 
better  under  local  self-government  than  under  any  iron-clad  rule 
adopted  by  or  suggested  from  a  central  power."  ^ 

The  protestors  are  from  the  Southern  states  and  their  protest 
seems  peculiarly  p.ertinent  at  this  time,  when  the  prevailing  condi- 
tions of  child  labor  in  these  states  are  attracting  so  much  attention. 
Not  to  digress  into  a  discussion  that  would  lead  us  too  far  afield, 
let  it  suffice  to  sum  up  the  evident  facts  of  the  situation  in  a  single 
paragraph.^ 

Whatever  their  previous  condition  of  freedom,  barbarism  or 
poverty,  there  are  to-day,  in  the  cotton  mills  of  the  South,  large  num- 
bers of  little  children,  some  under  ten  years  of  age,  who  can  be  and 
are  employed  sometimes  eleven  and  more  hours  a  day,  sometimes 
eleven  hours  of  the  night.     Indeed  conditions  parallel  the  times 

1  Report  of  Industrial  Commission  (1900),  Vol.  V  (pp.  3-4)- 

'  Ibid.,  p.  10. 

'  See  pamphlet  upon  "  Child  Labor  in  Alabama,"  "  An  Appeal  to  the  People  and  Press  of 
New  England,  with  a  Resulting  Correspondence,"  obtainable  from  the  secretary  of  the 
-Alabama  Child  Labor  Committee,  P.  O.  Box  347  Montgomery,  Alabama,  and  from  Room  6s4. 
JOS  East  Twenty-second  Street,  New  York  City. 


248  TJie  Amials  of  the  American  Academy 

of  Shaftesbury  in  England!  Attempts  to  pass  bills  that  can  hardly 
be  deemed  extravagant  in  the  protection  demanded,  and  even 
compulsory  education  measures,  have  been  opposed  and  frustrated. 
The  reasons  given  for  such  resistance  of  legal  interference  may  be 
summarized  about  as  follows,  at  least  in  Alabama,  which  has  been 
the  field  of  a  recent  encounter:  That  the  bill  presented  ^y  the 
Alabama  Child  Labor  Committee' is  "outside  interference"  and 
"  only  the  entering  wedge  " ;  that  "  Georgia  (facing  the  more  difficult 
task  in)  having  double  the  number  of  spindles,  should  act  first"; 
that  against  the  expressed  desires  of  mill  officers,  parents  insist 
upon  the  employment  of  their  children  or  "take  their  families  to 
other  mills  where  no  objection  is  made"  (and  this  the  law  would 
make  impossible) ;  ^  that  the  prodigiously  early  development  of 
this  particular  class  of  Southern  children  together  with  "the  length 
and  heat  of  the  day"  which  "are  prime  factors  respecting  the 
hours  that  may  be  appropriated  to  labor  "^  make  it  inadvisable 
to  limit  the  hours  of  labor  of  children  to  ten  out  of  a  possible  twenty- 
four,  or  to  require  that  they'  should  sleep  and  not  work  at  night. 
We  cannot  say  that  the  movement  for  uniform  legislation  or  even 
for  labor  legislation  "under  local  self-government "  is  unopposed. 

The  recommendations  of  the  Commission  also  include  the 
following : 

"Further  regulations,  especially  in  the  line  of  bringing  states 
which  now  have  no  factory  acts  up  to  a  higher  standard,  is  earnestly 
recommended. 

"In  states  which  have  many  factories  the  well-known  factory 
act  of  Massachusetts  or  New  York,  based  upon  the  English  act 
which  served  as  a  model  to  all  such,  is  recommended  for  adoption. 

"The  sweat-shop  law  also,  which  is  now  practically  identical  in 
t'he  important  states  of  New  York,  Massachusetts,  Pennsylvania 
and  Ohio,  is  recommended  for  general  adoption. 

"A  simple  and  liberal  law  regulating  the  payment  of  labor 
should  be  adopted  in  all  the  states,  providing  that  laborers  shall 
be  paid,  for  all  labor  performed,  in  cash  or  cash  orders,  without 
discount,  not  in  goods  or  due  bills,  and  that  no  compulsion,  direct 

*  Alabama  Child  Labor  Committee:  Edgar  Gardner  Murphy,  Rector  of  St.  John's  Epis- 
copal Church,  Montgomery,  Thomas  G.  Jones,  ex-Governor  of  Alabama;  Lucien  V.  Lataste, 
Montgomary:  J.  H.  Phillips,  Superintendent  of  Schoois,  Birmingham;  John  Craft,  Member  of 
Legislature,  Mobile;  A.  J.  Reilly,  Member  of  the  Legislature,  Ensley. 

2  J.  H.  Nichols,  Treasurer,  Alabama  City  Mill,  Boston  Evening  Transcript,  October  30. 

*  Report  of  Industrial  Commission  Vol.  V,  p.  10.     J.  W.  Daniel,  dissenting. 


Tendencies  of  Factoy  Legislation  and  Inspection  249 

or  indirect,  shall  be  used  to  make  them  purchase  supplies  at  any- 
particular  store." * 

The  report  refers  also  to  other  statutes  which  reinforce  certain 
common  law  doctrines,  such  as  those  concerning  intimidation, 
strikes,  boycotts  and  black-listing,  to  those  protecting  the  political 
rights  and  legal  rights  in  suit  of  labor  and  to  the  recognition 
accorded  to  trade  unions  in  provisions  for  incorporation  and  pro- 
tection of  labels,  making  however  no  special  recommendation 
concerning  them  to  the  states. 

We  see,  therefore,  that  beyond  the  elementary  regulation  of 
child  labor  and  hours  of  labor  for  minors,  the  Commission  would 
have  the  states  establish  a  standard  of  good  sanitation  and  of  safe 
conditions  in  factories  everywhere,  and  above  this,  especially 
suggests  a  scientific  and  well-tested  law  for  adoption  in  states  having 
large  manufactures.  The  restriction  of  hours  is  always  looked 
upon  chiefly  as  a  health  measure,  but  it  is  certain  that  the  general 
bodily  vigor  of  the  worker  has  been  more  markedly  affected  by 
modern  improvements  in  ventilation,  lighting  and  sanitation  than 
by  any  of  the  shorter  day  statutes.  Factory  acts  assist  materially 
in  forcing  this  advance  and  have  received  a  due  recognition  of  their 
usefulness.  In  recommending  the  universal  passage  of  a  sweat- 
shop act,  the  Commission  endorses  the  old  saying,  that  an  ounce  of 
prevention  is  worth  a  pound  of  cure.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  such 
laws  have  been  passed,  and  in  an  incredibly  short  time  (since  1892, 
when  New  York  passed  the  first  of  this  series),  in  those  states  in 
which  the  evil  is  important.  Attempts  to  extirpate  the  evil  in 
these  states  threaten  to  drive  it  into  neighboring  sections. 
Connecticut,  for  example,  lying  between  Massachusetts  and  New 
York,  in  both  of  which  quarters  the  anti-sweat-shop  war  is  being 
vigorously  pushed,  has  enacted  a  similar  statute  simply  as  a  pro- 
tective measure. 

It  is  clear  that  the  ultimate  effect  of  uniform  labor  legislation 
will  not  be  one  law  applying  throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of 
this  great  land,  but  rather  a  graded  system.  It  will  determine  a 
minimum  standard  of  regulations,  a  basal  plane  of  competition  for 
American  industry.  Above  this  it  will  still  be  necessary  for  the 
local  government  in  many  places  to  impose  stricter  requirements 
where  there  is  complexity  of  organization,  but  in  that  which  is 

^  Report  of  Industrial  Commission,  Vol.  V,  pp.  4,  5,  7- 
2  Ibid.,  p.  6. 


250  The  Annals  of  the  Anieriean  Academy 

fundamentally  essential  to  the  common  well-being  of  the  commu- 
nity there  will  be  one  limit  approved  for  all  that  may  not  be 
transgressed. 

The  suggestion  made  in  the  Industrial  Commission's  report 
as  to  how  this  standard  may  be  determined  is  especially  well  con- 
sidered : 

"In  conclusion  the  Commission  would  recommend  the  estab- 
lishment by  all  the  states  of  labor  bureaus  or  commissioners,  who 
shall,  besides  their  local  duties  as  now  defined,  be  charged  with 
that  of  exchanging  their  statistics  and  reports,  and  of  convening 
at  least  once  in  a  year  in  national  conference  for  general  consulta- 
tion, which  national  conference  shall  have  power  to  submit  directly 
to  Congress  its  recommendations  for  such  federal  legislation  as  a 
majority  of  the  state  commissioners  may  deem  advisable,  and  shall 
also  submit  to  all  the  states,  through  the  commissioners  of  each 
separate  state,  their  recommendations  for  such  uniform  state 
statutes  upon  labor  subjects  as  may  seem  wise  and  desirable."  ' 

If  we  rightly  interpreted  the  action  of  local  governments  in 
establishing  these  bureaus  of  labor,  as  a  step  towards  more  scien- 
tific legislation  in  those  states,  surely  this  plan  of  a  national  confer- 
ence of  state  commissioners  of  labor  stands  for  a  still  more  impor- 
tant extension  of  the  scientific  method  in  questions  of  labor  legisla- 
tion. It  also  illustrates  a  tendency  that  is  becoming  more  and  more 
evident,  namely,  the  fuller  reliance  that  is  being  placed  upon 
"intelligence  as  a  social  regulator"  and  "publicity  for  controlling 
industry  and  commerce."  Make  known  the  actual  conditions  that 
prevail,  point  out  the  appropriate  remedy,  and  the  weight  of  an 
informed  public  opinion  will  go  far  to  force  reform  whether  through 
an  act  of  legislation  or  through  the  influence  which  may  be  exerted 
by  consumers  upon  producers.  Indeed  the  battle  cry  of  the  day 
is,  "Give  us  but  an  enlightened  public  opinion  and  our  fight  is 
three-quarters  won." 

The  suggestion  of  regulating  business  relations  through  the 
pressure  of  public  sentiment  has  been  seized  upon  with  almost  too 
great  avidity  by  some  who  would  apply  it  as  the  immediate  and 
sufficient  solution  of  all  labor  difficulties  and  as  an  argument  against 
the  enactment  of  any  statutory  regulations  whatever.  Such  a 
proposition  appears,  however,  of  doubtful  value  at  present  under 

'  Report  of  Industrial  Commission,  Vr!.  V,  p.  9. 


Tendencies  of  Factory  Legislation  and  Inspection  251 

the  conditions  of  unenlightenment  that  unfortunately  prevail,  and 
it  may  be  feared,  does  not  proceed  from  the  best  friends  of  labor. 

Constit\ilio)iali\y . 

Recurring  to  this  fact  of  opposition,  already  earlier  noted,  it 
has  been  questioned  whether  this  counter-movement  does  not  offer 
a  real  menace  to  the  future  growth  of  the  labor  laws,  and  indeed  to 
the  continued  existence  of  the  present  body  of  legislation.  In  a 
number  of  instances  where  labor  laws  have  been  brought  to  the 
test  of  a  court  decision  they  have  been  pronounced  unconstitutional 
and  annulled  upon  the  ground  that  they  "contravene  freedom  of 
contract,"  are  "class  legislation"  and  so  forth.  This  has  been  the 
fate  of  statutes  regulating  the  hours  of  labor  for  women  over  twenty- 
one  years  of  age  in  Nebraska,  California  and  Illinois;  of  weekly 
payment  laws  in  Pennsylvania,  Illinois,  Missouri,  West  Virginia 
and  Indiana;  of  anti-truck  acts  in  Pennsylvania,  Ohio,  Illinois  and 
West  Virginia ;  and  of  those  prohibiting  company  stores  or  coercion 
of  purchase  in  Pennsylvania,  Illinois  and  Tennessee. 

In  Massachusetts,  on  the  contrary,  the  regulation  of  hours  was 
sustained  "as  a  health  or  police  regulation."  Also  at  the  time 
when  the  bill  for  the  extension  of  the  act  concerning  weekly  pay- 
ments was  before  the  legislature  the  justices  returned  as  their 
opinion  to  the  House  of  Representatives  that  such  an  act  was  within 
the  constitutional  power  of  the  General  Court  to  pass.  It  is  also 
worthy  of  notice,  that  in  spite  of  the  decision  by  the  Supreme  Court 
of  Nebraska  in  1894,'  a  new  law  defining  hours  of  labor  for  women 
was  passed  in  1899,  and  to-day  applies  not  only  in  factories,  but  in 
restaurants  and  hotels  as  weU.  Again,  in  the  report  just  reviewed, 
the  commissioners  have  recommended  the  general  enactment  of  an 
anti-truck  and  freedom  of  purchase  act  in  spite  of  the  decisions  of 
Pennsylvania,  Illinois  and  Tennessee  courts. 

Verdicts  of  unconstitutionality  have  therefore  hardly  affected 
more  than  the  very  border  of  the  factory  laws;  the  regulation  of 
child  labor,  of  workroom  conditions,  of  hours  of  labor  for  mmors, 

I41  Neb.,  127.  Nebraska  (1S99,  197)— No  female  shall  be  employed  in  any  manufactur- 
ing mechanical  or  mercantile  establishments,  hotel  or  restaurant  in  this  state  more  than  sixty 
hours  during  any  week,  and  ten  hours  shall  constitute  a  day's  labor  The  hours  of  each  day 
may  be  so  arranged  as  to  permit  employment  of  such  females  at  any  time  from  six  o'clock  m 
the  morning  to  ten  o'clock  in  the  evening;  but  in  no  case  shall  such  employment  exceed  ten 
hours  in  any  one  day. 


252  The  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 

have  never  even  been  questioned.  It  hardly  seems  Hkely  that  any 
of  these  laws  will  ever  be  put  to  the  court  test  at  all.  Both  in 
England  and  in  this  country,  they  have  proven  generally  beneficial 
to  public  interest,  they  have  been  pretty  cheerfully  accepted  and 
obeyed ;  they  have  gained  public  approval ;  they  have  the  political 
support  of  a  large  labor  party.  Perhaps  the  apparently  adverse 
action  of  the  courts  ought  rather  to  be  looked  upon  as  a  healthfully 
conservative  influence  against  possible  evil  results  of  hasty  and 
ill-considered  legislation  or  attempts  to  interpose  legislation  where 
the  object  could  be  better  obtained  by  the  effective  organization 
of  labor  and  should  be  left  to  the  initiative  of  the  unions. 

Factory  legislation  has  been  inevitably  necessitated  by  the 
action  of  economic  and  social  forces,  and  may,  in  fact,  be  regarded 
as  a  natural  phenomenon  accompanying  the  growth  of  the  factory 
system  of  manufacture.  It  has  developed  against  the  opposition 
of  extreme  doctrines  of  free  contract,  and  having  demonstrated 
itself  in  the  facts  of  actual  life  has  also  created  a  new  theory  of  the 
relation  of  the  state  to  labor  and  industry. 

"The  state  may  determine  the  plane  of  competition;  it  may 
equalize  the  conditions  of  contract  as  between  employer  and 
employee;  it  may  intervene  to  protect  the  standard  of  living  of 
the  workers.  The  only  limits  that  theory  places  upon  these  lines 
of  interference  are  considerations  of  the  general  good." 

In  the  historical  development  of  factory  laws,  well-marked 
tendencies  are  traceable.  The  early  attitude  of  timidity  has  given 
place  to  that  of  peremptory  command.  Progress  has  been  steadily 
toward  increased  severity  in  the  regulations  imposed,  increased 
exactness  in  detail  and  definition,  towards  distinctly  placed  respon- 
sibility and  towards  more  adequate  inspection. 

The  expansion  of  industry  in  this  country  has  of  course  been 
accompanied  by  a  like  territorial  extension  of  the  labor  laws.  Ac- 
complished through  the  independent  action  of  the  several  state 
legislatures,  the  result  has  been  an  unfortunate  confusion  of  unre- 
lated and  non-uniform  measures.  One  of  the  recent  and  most 
important  tendencies  of  this  legislation  is  the  movement  for  greater 
uniformity,  made  especially  prominent  by  the  attention  given  to  it 
as  a  part  of  the  study  of  the  Industrial  Commission.  It  indeed 
seems  probable  that  these  efforts  will  eventually  issue  in  the 
determination  of  a  minimum  standard  of  labor  legislation  for  the 


Tc7idcncies  of  Factory  Legislation  and  Inspection  253 

country  as  a  whole,  above  which  common  basis  the  states  will  rise 
in  grade  according  to  the  development  of  industrial  organization 
and  consequent  increase  of  regulation  demanded.  This  is  neces- 
aarily  a  matter  of  voluntary  conformity  on  the  part  of  the  separate 
state  legislatures  and  therefore  a  fulfillment  to  be  awaited  with  all 
patience. 


VI.  Juvenile  Courts 


(255) 


Probation  and  Juvenile  Courts 


By  Mrs.  Emily  E.  Williamson,  President  New  Jersey  State  Con- 
ference of  Charities  and  Corrections 


(257) 


PROBATION  AND  JUVENILE  COURTS 


By  Mrs.  Emily  E    Williamson,  Elizabeth,  N.  J. 
President  New  Jersey  State  Conference  of  Charities  and  Corrections 


U 


Perhaps  the  most  practical  movement  in  penal  reform  is  pro- 
bation, putting  a  stop  as  it  does  to  the  source  from  which  crime  is 
recruited.  The  principle  involved  in  probation  is  prevention  and, 
where  properly  applied,  has  resulted  in  a  very  large  diminution  of 
crime.  Massachusetts  reports  a  falling  off  of  75  per  cent  in  juvenile 
crime,  owing  to  probation.  Juvenile  and  first  offenders  should 
never  be  dealt  with  as  real  criminals  under  the  law  except  in  special 
cases  of  depravity.  Penological  science  lays  down  general  rules 
for  the  treatment  of  juveniles  and  first  offenders,  absolutsty  pro- 
hibiting imprisonment  except  for  those  convicted  of  flagrant 
crimes,  as  it  breaks  down  self-respect,  placing  a  stigma  on  character 
that  is  never  removed.  Its  detqrrent  power  is  destroyed  with  its 
relief  from  care  and  comfortable  support  and  it  hurts  the  physical, 
mental  and  moral  health  of  the  prisoner.  The  main  object  in  the 
sentence  of  the  convicted  juvenile  or  first  offender  should  be  his 
rescue  from  a  criminal  life ;  therefore  a  complete  investigation 
should  be  made  of  his  character,  home  and  environment  before 
trial.  In  Massachusetts  the  probation  act  requires  a  probation  L^ 
officer  to  inquire  into  the  nature  of  every  criminal  case  brought 
before  the  court,  and  he  may  recommend  that  any  person  committed 
by  the  court  be  placed  on  probation.  The  question  for  the  court, 
upon  the  information  of  the  probation  officer,  is  to  decide  whether 
it  is  safe  for  society  to  allow  the  prisoner  to  go  at  large.  It  has 
become  an  established  fact  among  the  people  of  Massachusetts, 
after  several  years  of  trial,  that  in  the  administration  of  justice  the 
probation  system  has  been  wise  and  beneficial. 

The  probation  law  enacted  by  the  legislature  of  Illinois  in 
1899  declares  the  purpose  of  the  law  to  be  as  follows:  "This  act 
shall  be  liberally  construed  to  the  purpose  that  its  end  may  be 
carried  out,  to  wit:  that  the  care,  custody  and  discipline  of  a  child 
shall  approximate  as  nearly  as  may  be  that  which  should  be  given 
by  its  parents;  and  in  all  cases  where  it  can  be  properly  done,  the 
child  be  placed  in  an  approved  family  home  and  become  a  member 

(259) 


26o  The  Annals  of  the  Ajnerican  Academy 

of  the  family  by  legal  adoption  or  otherwise."  The  Illinois  juvenile 
court  in  its  instructions  to  probation  officers  states  that  it  will  be 
the  endeavor  of  the  court  to  carry  out  both  the  letter  and  the  spirit 
of  the  foregoing  act,  and  to  this  end  the  court  will  have  in  mind  the 
following  considerations:  The  Welfare  and  Interests  of  the  Child. — 
To  save  the  child  from  neglect  and  cruelty  and  from  the  danger  of 
becoming  a  criminal  or  dependent.  The  Welfare  of  the  Comnmnity. 
— Lessening  the  burdens  of  taxation  and  loss  of  property  through 
the  ravages  of  the  criminal  class  and  by  preventing  pauperism  and 
crime.  Temporary  Care. — The  law  forbidding  the  keeping  of  any 
child  in  a  j  ail  or  station-house,  a  place  of  detention  is  provided  under 
the  care  of  the  court.  Whenever  practicable  the  child  is  to  be  left 
with  his  parents  or  with  some  suitable  family.  Supervision  After 
Action  of  the  Court. — The  probation  officer  is  expected  to  keep  a 
special  oversight  of  the  child  by  frequent  visits  at  regular  intervals 
and  by  reports  from  parents  or  custodians. 

In  Pennsylvania  the  law  requires  that  the  probation  officer 
shall  be  notified  when  any  juvenile  offender  is  brought  before  the 
court,  that  he  shall  make  such  investigation  as  shall  be  directed  by 
the  court,  be  present  to  represent  the  interests  of  the  child  when  the 
case  is  heard,  furni^i  such  information  and  assistance  as  the  judge 
may  require  and  take  such  charge  of  any  child  before  or  after  trial 
as  may  be  ordered. 

Massachusetts,  Rhode  Island,  Pennsylvania,  Illinois,  Indiana, 
Minnesota  and  New  Jersey  have  state  probation  laws.  _San  Fran- 
cisco and  Washington,  D.  C,  have  probation  officers  for  the  cities 
alone.  New  York  has  at  last  provided  for  probation  and  also  for 
children's  courts,  but  the  plans  are  not  yet  completed. 

-^  Voluntary  probation  officers  in  many  cases  in  the  large  cities 
assist  the  paid  officer,  and  in  Chicago,  Philadelphia,  Boston  and 
New  York  the  child-saving  societies  of  all  denominations  have 
placed  officers — appointed  by  them  for  this  purpose — at  the  dis- 
posal of  the  court.  Their  services  have  always  been  accepted.  In 
New  Jersey  the  State  Board  of  Children's  Guardians  greatly  assists 
the  county  probation  officers.  Wise  child-saving  work  can  be  done 
with  this  mutual  co-operation. 

In  March,  1900,  a  bill  prepared  by  Justice  Franklin  T.  Fort, 
of  the  Supreme  Court,  was  passed  by  the  New  Jersey  legislature, 
providing  for  the  appointment  of  probation  officers  and  authorizing 
judges  of  the  Courts  of  Quarter  Sessions  to  appoint  one  probation 


Probation  and  Jin'tiiile   Courts  261 

officer  and,  with  the  consent  of  the  board  of  county  freeholders,  as 
many  other  probation  officers,  not  exceeding  three,  one  of  whom 
mav  be  a  woman,  as  the  judge  deems  wise.  The  classes  of  offenders 
who  may  be  probated,  /.  c,  respecting  age,  etc.,  is  left  entirely  to 
the  discretion  of  the  judge.  Seven  counties  in  New  Jersey  have 
probation  officers  —  Hudson,  Essex,  Morris,  Union,  Middlesex, 
Mercer  and  Atlantic 

In  February,  1902  at  my  request,  I  was  appointed,  by  the 
court,  probation  officer  for  Un  on  county.  New  Jersey,  to  serve 
without  salary,  the  court  granting  fifty  dollars  a  month  for  a  clerk 
and  allowing  necessary  expenses — in  all  not  to  exceed  eight  hundred 
dollars  annually.  The  following  are  the  descriptive  blanks  and 
rules  prepared  by  me  and  allowed  by  the  court.  In  addition,  case 
cards  are  kept  in  which  all  records  in  detail  are  entered.  A  synopsis 
of  each  case  is  also  entered  in  a  history  book  which  is  easily  referred 
to  by  an  index  kept  on  the  Dewey  plan.  Each  probationer  is  visited 
by  the  probation  officer  or  her  clerk  once  a  month  and  in  special 
cases  oftener.  The  probationer  reports  regularly  at  the  office, 
either  in  person  or  by  letter,  at  such  times  as  directed. 

UNION    COUNTY    PROBATION    OFFICER. 
RECORD. 

No. 

Name 

Address 

Age  Height  Weight 

White  or  colored  Color  of  eyes  Hair 

Complexion 

Special  marks 

Religion  Church 

School  Teacher 

Nationality  *  Married  or  single 

Number  of -children,  names  and  ages 

Occupation 

Employer's  name  and  address 

Father's  name  and  address 

Occupation 

Mother's  name  and  address 

Occupation 
Other  members  of  family 
Previous  offense 
Present  offense 
Date  committed  to  Probation  Officer  Years  expire 


262  The  Annals  of  the  A)nerican  Academy 

Fine,$  Costs,  $ 

Re -arrested 
Cause  of  Re-arrest 
REMARKS: 

Ledger  number 


Union  Count.y  Court  of  Quarter  Sessions 
RULES  GOVERNING  PROBATION. 

The  Probationer  is  required  by  the  Court, 

First. — To  furnish  promptly,  by  letter  or  in  person,  such  information 
as  the  Probation  Officer  may  require . 

Second. — To  mail  on  the  first  of  each  month  a  letter,  stating  his  present 
residence  and  occupation,  place  of  employment  and  the  name  of  his  em- 
ployer; also  the  number  of  days  employed  during  the  previous  month,  the 
place  or  places  of  employment  and  the  names  of  his  employers.  If  the  Pro- 
bationer is  of  school  age,  the  number  of  days  of  school  attendance  must  be 
given.  The  truth  of  these  facts  must  be  certified  by  parent,  employer,  school 
teacher  or  some  other  person  satisfactory  to  the  Probation  Officer. 

Third. — Evil  companions  and  bad  associations  must  be  avoided.  Strict 
temperance  must  be  observed.  The  Probationer  must  in  every  way  conduct 
himself  as  an  upright  and  law-abiding  citizen. 

Fourth. — To  report  promptly  to  the  Probation  Officer  every  change  of 
residence.  To  consvilt  the  Probation  Officer  before  moving  out  of  the  State 
of  New  Jersey  or  out  of  Union  County. 

Fifth. — If  the  Probationer  undertakes  to  pay  fines  or  costs  at  stated, 
periods  these  payments  must  be  prompt.      If  unable  to  meet  the  obligation 
promptly  he  will  send  advance  notice  to  the  Probation  Officer. 

The  probation  period  is  three  years.  If  during  this  period  of  trial  the 
Probationer  fails  to  observe  strictly  each  of  the  above  rules,  he  is  liable  to  be 
taken  into  custody  at  any  time  by  the  Probation  Officer  to  ser\-e  the  full  term 
of  his  suspended  sentence.  Liberty  depends  entirely  on  the  good  conduct  of 
the  Probationer. 

During  the  three  months  that  I  have  held  this  office  twenty- 
six  cases  have  been  probated  to  me  by  the  judge  of  the  county  court 
and  forty-six  by  the  police  justices  of  the  county.  The  ages  of  the 
probationers  and  the  character  of  the  charges  made  against  them 
are  as  follows : 


Probation  and  Juvenile   Courts 


263 


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Males  over  16  yrs.    . 
Males  under  16  yrs. 
Females  over  16  yrs. 
Females     under    16 

ys 

^8 
6 

7 
72 

25 

28 
4 

6 
63 

6 

2 

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9 

12 

20 

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4 

The  secretary  of  the  New  Jersey  State  Charities  Aid  Associa- 
tion in  his  report  says:  "  It  is  easier  in  Union  than  in  most  counties 
to  learn  whether  such  an  officer  is  needed  by  the  court,  by  the 
prisoner  and  by  society,  for  the  records  of  the  Union  County  Jail 
are  exceptionally  complete.  The  Warden's  report  contains  statis- 
tics on  two  most  important  points — the  ages  of  the  prisoners  and 
the  number  of  the  commitments.  These  two  points  are  most  im- 
portant because  the  probation  system  presumes  that  all  persons 
who  are  inexperienced  in  crime,  whatever  their  actual  age,  can  be 
better  treated  under  supervision  outside  of  jail  than  in  idleness 
within    jail. 

"  The  New  Jersey  law  was  made  broad  enough  to  include  both 
children  of  7  years  and  adults  of  83,  except  where  safety  demands 
the  prisoner's  incarceration.  From  the  Warden's  report  it  appears 
that  591  persons  were  sent  to  the  county  jail  last  year  for  terms 
averaging  twenty-nine  days.  Of  this  number  only  181,  or  30  per 
cent,  had  served  previous  sentences.  The  great  majority,  70  per 
cent,  or  410,  had  never  been  previously  committed.  Among  these 
first  commitments  are  found  persons  of  every  age  from  7  to 
70  excepting  52,  56,  58,  62  and  69,  while  the  years  71,  77  and 
83  have  one  representative  each.  Take  what  age  we  will,  public 
sentiment  would  approve  another  chance  outside  of  jail,  for  every 
first  offender,  provided  the  dignity  of  the  law  and  the  welfare  of 
society  would  be  in  no  way  jeopardized  by  suspending  sentence. 
Our  probation  law  provides  for  failures  to  reform  outside  of  jail  and 
gives  to  the  probation  officer  and  the  court  power  to  inflict  the 


264  The  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 

original  but  suspended  sentence  at  any  time  within  three  years  from 
the  date  of  conviction.  It  is  manifest  that  every  successful  case  of 
probation  nips  in  the  bud  a  potential  and  probable  career  of  crime.  " 

The  oversight  of  adult  first  offenders  by  a  probation  officer  is 
S)i  immense  value  in  reforming  the  offender  and  also  results  in  a 
;^great  saving  of  expense  to  the  taxpayer.  The  first  is  the  primary 
object  and  probably  I  cannot  do  better  than  cite  some  cases  which 
are  under  my  care:  J.  E.,  aged  22,  a  bright  Irishman,  not  intoxi- 
cated, in  a  quarrel  which  took  place  in  a  saloon,  interfered  and 
used  too  much  strength  in  separating  the  combatants;  charged 
with  malicious  assault,  court  would  have  committed  him  to  county 
jail  for  six  months  had  there  been  no  probation  officer.  Probation, 
officer  returned  the  man  to  his  home,  helped  him  to  secure  employ- 
ment, visited  his  accuser  and  warned  him  not  to  molest  J.  E. 
Young  man's  weekly  calls  to  report  have  become  friendly  visits; 
he  is  always  well  dressed  and  is  entirely  self-respecting. 

N.  M. ;  American;  aged  59;  painter;  married;  offence — grand 
larceny;  never  arrested  before;  while  drunk,  stole  mayor's  horse 
and  buggy  from  hitching-post  on  main  street;  man  not  an  habitual 
drunkard,  character  good,  provided  comfortable  home  for  his 
family,  always  industrious  and  kind.  Had  there  been  no  probation 
officer  N.  M.  would  have  been  sent  to  state  prison.  He  is  now 
doing  well  and  reporting  regularly. 

Two  boys,  9  and  12  years,  arrested  on  charge  of  disorderly 
conduct  (threw  a  fish-head  at  an  old  woman);  belonged  to  the 
"gang;"  had  fairly  good  homes;  did  not  attend  school  regularly; 
found  upon  investigation  to  be  mischievous  and  truants  only. 
Probation  officer  handed  boys  to  truant  officer,  who  immediately 
placed  them  in  school.  Boys  report  each  week,  come  to  office  in 
Sunday  clothes  and  evidently  enjoy  these  visits.  One  lad  has  been 
employed  on  Saturdays,  by  probation  officer's  clerk,  doing  odd  jobs 
and  is  very  proud  of  this  evidence  of  favor.  There  has  been  a  great 
improvement  in  the  whole  family  owing  to  pressure  through  this 
little  fellow. 

In  cases  of  non-support  which  are  always  tried  before  police 
justices,  probation  has  proved  of  inestimable  value.  The  following 
is  an  example:  Mr.  B.  drank  occasionally,  earned  eighteen  dollars 
a  week  and  failed  to  support  his  family;  was  arrested  and  handed 
to  the  probation  officer.  After  a  thorough  investigation,  including 
conditions  in  the  home,  the  man  was  ordered  to  request  his  em- 


Probation  and  Juvenile   Courts  265 

ployer  to  hand  Mrs.  B.  ten  and  one-half  dollars  every  week — one 
and  one-half  dollars  for  each  of  the  five  children  and  three  dollars, 
for  Mr.  B.'s  own  board.  Besides  this  the  man  was  required  to  pay  the 
house  rent,  eight  dollars  a  month.  After  the  first  month,  at  the 
request  of  the  wife,  he  was  allowed  to  give  her  the  money  himself. 
Each  week  the  man  reports  the  payment.  Had  Mr.  B.  been  sent 
to  jail,  he  would  have  los.t  his  self-respect  and  his  situation,  he 
would  have  become  an  expense  to  the  taxpayer  and  his  family  de- 
pendent on  the  charity  of  the  community. 

Three  little  Polish  girls,  aged  9,  10  and  11  years,  arrested  and 
indicted. by  the  Grand  Jury  for  grand  larceny;  on  investigation 
found  parents,  who  could  not  speak  English,  were  not  implicated; 
homes  above  the  average.  Children  had  stolen  ribbons,  lace  and 
other  articles  for  personal  adornment,  saying  some  had  been  presents ; 
others  were  hidden  between  two  old  mattresses  in  a  garret;  par- 
ents terribly  frightened  when  discoveries  were  made.  Upon  arrest 
of  children  and  after  bail  had  been  secured,  I  began  to  take  super- 
vision of  them;  examined  each  one  separately  at  my  office;  sent 
for  priest,  and  arranged  for  daily  instructions  by  the  Sisters — little 
girls  had  been  regular  attendants  at  school.  Later,  without  trial, 
they  Were  probated  to  me  by  the  court  for  an  indefinite  period. 

The  police  magistrates  of  Hudson  and  Union  counties  avail 
themselves  of  the  services  of  the  probation  officers  and  it  is  in  these 
courts  that  good  preventive  work  can  be  done  by  seeing  the  ac- 
cused as  soon  as  a  charge  is  made  and  by  investigating  the  case 
before  trial,  and  also,  in  many  instances,  preventing  the  charge 
being  entered  by  talking  the  matter  over  and  promising  to  see  the 
accused.  In  Elizabeth,  the  largest  city  of  Union  county,  arrests 
and  commitments  have  fallen  off  40  per  cent  since  the  work  of  the 
probation  officer  has  become  known. 

Three  Italians  appeared  at  my  office,  one  to  complain  of  two 
bo3^s  and  the  others  the  fathers  of  the  boys.  These  men  had  come 
to  ask  me  to  take  charge  of  the  little  fellows,  who  were  mischievous 
and  annoyed  the  complainant.  *A11  three  were  satisfied  with  my 
decision. 

A  Jew,  who  was  in  the  habit  of  making  charges  of  disorderly 
conduct  against  mischievous  boys,  after  a  talk  with  me,  promised 
to  bring  no  more  children  before  the  court  until  I  had  investi- 
gated each  case  for  him.  He  had  not  realized  the  serious  harm  in- 
flicted upon  the  boys'  characters  by  their  being  brought  into  court. 


266  The  Annals  of  the  Avicrican  Academy 

At  the  end  of  an  hour  he  was  fully  convinced.  The  railway- 
detectives  also  report  cases  to  me  before  making  charges  and  abide 
by  my  decisions. 

There  is  great  danger  of  perfunctory  work  on  the  part  of  the 

^  probation  officer  and  very  grave  danger  from  the  uneducated 
officer.  Public  opinion  has  still  to  be  aroused ;  therefore  the  need 
of  the  best  work  along  these  lines.  Where  good  work  has  been 
done,  the  public  has  recognized  that  the  practice  of  infficting  short 

'^  terms  of  imprisonment  for  minor  offences  is  useless  and  harmful. 
The  need  of  men  and  women  of  sound  judgment  and  high  character 
for  this  work  is  great,  and  in  the  development  of  the  system 
it  is  hoped  that  many  specialists  will  devote  some  time  to  the 
installation  of  the  work  and  help  to  bring  about  the  proper 
administration  of  the  law. 

Boston  was  the  first  city  to  set  apart  special  hours  for  the  trial 
of  juvenile  offenders,  and  the  excellent  way  in  which  these  trials 
are  managed  is  an  object  lesson  worth  studying.  Persons  not 
connected  with  the  trial  are  required  to  leave  the  court  room, 
the  officer  who  made  the  arrest  tells  his  story,  the  complainant  his, 
and  the  witnesses  are  examined.  The  child  is  called  to  the  judge's 
desk  and  tells  his  story  in  a  quiet  voice.     Confidential  relations  are 

^  at  once  established  between  the  child  and  the  judge.  The  proba- 
tion officer  then  makes  his  report  upon  the  case,  after  which  the 
judge  announces  his  decision. 

The  same  methods  are  employed  in  Chicago,  Philadelphia 
and  Minneapolis  and  will  be  in  New  York.  In  Chicago,  a  judge  has 
been  appointed  who  only  tries  children's  cases;  in  New  York,  a 
judge  is  to  be  chosen  from  time  to  time.  The  value  of  this  way  of 
conducting  juvenile  trials  cannot  be  overestimated,  as  it  robs  the 
trial  of  all  the  sensational  element.  It  also  makes  it  easy  for  the 
various   child-saving  societies,   such   as  the   St.  Vincent  de  Paul, 

-  !  Children's  Aid  and  Prevention  of  Cruelty  to  Children  and  for 
truant  officers  to  co-operate  with  the  court. 

The  following  is  a  pen-picture  of  a  trial  held  before  the  court 
in  which  I  am  probation  officer:  Court  room  crowded,  twenty-two 
lawyers  present ;  prosecutor  reads  the  indictment.  Boy  eleven  years 
old  arrested  for  stealing  brass  worth  eighty  dollars,  from  railroad, 
and  selling  it  to  a  junk  man  for  twenty  cents ;  had  been  bailed  by 
kind  neighbor,  who  delivered  the  boy.  Court  officer  calls  witnesses; 
boy  brought;    so  small  that  his  eyes  are  just  on  a  line  with  the 


Probation  and  Juvenile  Courts  267 

rail;  boy  weeping;  prosecutor  exclaims,  and  says  boy  should 
be  in  day-nursery;  audience  in  back  of  room  rises  and  presses  for- 
ward to  look  at  boy;  lawyers  inside  of  rail  jump  to  their  feet; 
court  raps  for  order;  boy  realizes  that  he  has  become  an  object 
of  pity  and  curiosity,  cries  louder  and  calls  for  his  mother,  who 
comes  forward  with  a  baby  in  her  arms;  judge  and  prosecutor  con- 
fer, boy  is  handed  over  to  probation  officer  to  be  produced  to  stand 
trial  when  called,  virtually  ending  the  matter. 


The  Juvenile  Court  in  Philadelphia 


By  Judge  Abraham  M.  Beitler,  Court  of  Common  Pleas  No.  i, 

Philadelphia 


(269) 


THE  JUVENILE   COURT    IN   PHILADELPHIA 


By  Judge  Abraham  M.  Beitler 
Court  of   Common  Pleas  No.  i,  Philadelphia 


\^ 


At  its  session  in  1901  the  legislature  of  our  state  passed  an 
act,  with  a  rather  lengthy  title,  which  has  become  known  as  the 
Juvenile  Court  Act.  It  passed  the  Senate  by  unanimous  vote  and  ^ 
in  the  House  there  were  but  three  votes  against  it  and  one  hundred 
and  forty-seven  for  it.  The  act  commits  to  a  Judge  of  the  Court 
of  Quarter  Sessions  some  new  powers,  and  imposes  upon  him 
some  new  duties. 

The  scope  of  these  powers  and  duties  is,  I  am  sure,  under- 
stood by  but  few.  That  there  may  be  a  wider  acquaintance  with 
the  new  law  and  a  clearer  appreciation  of  the  benefits  possible  to 
be  secured  by  its  enforcement,  I  have  tried  to  condense  into  a  brief 
article  a  statement  of  its  salient  features,  and,  besides,  to  give  some 
data  as  to  the  work  done  since  the  act  was  put  into  operation  in 
Philadelphia. 

The  act  deals  only  with  juveniles,  and  only  with  those  under 
sixteen  years  of  age,  and  of  juveniles  under  sixteen  only  with  the 
unfortunate  and  the  erring.  By  its  terms  it  applies  to  "depend- 
ent or  neglected"  children,  and  "delinquent"  children.  The  first 
class,  the  act  sa3^s,  shall  include  any  child  who  is  destitute  or  home- 
less or  abandoned  or  dependent  upon  the  public  for  support,  or 
who  has  not  the  proper  parental  care  or  guardianship,  or  who 
habitually  begs  or  receives  alms,  or  whose  home,  by  reason  of 
neglect  or  cruelty  or  depravity  of  the  parents,  is  an  unfit  place  for 
such  a  child,  or  any  child  under  eight  years  of  age  found  peddling 
on  the  streets. 

A  "delinquent"  child  is  one  who  "violates  any  law  of  this 
state,  or  any  city  or  borough  ordinance." 

The  Court's  jurisdiction  may  be  invoked  by  a  petition,  which 
must  be  verified  by  affidavit,  stating  that  the  child  therein  referred 
to  is  either  dependent  or  neglected  or  delinquent. 

Upon  the  filing  of  the  petition,  the  Judge  may  issue  either  a 
summons  or  a  warrant.  The  former  requires  the  party  having  the 
custody  of  the  child  to  produce  it  in  court.     The  latter  imposes  the 

(271) 


v.. 


272  The  Annals  of  the  Aniericmi  Academy 

duty  of  bringing  the  child  into  court  upon  the  officer  armed  with 
the  warrant.  Pending  the  final  disposition  of  any  case,  the  child 
may  be  retained  in  the  possession  of  the  person  having  it  in  charge, 
or  in  some  suitable  place  provided  by  any  association  having  for 
■one  of  its  objects  the  care  of  delinquent  or  neglected  children. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  very  few  cases  are  brought  into  court  upon 
either  summons  or  warrant.  The  Judge  holding  the  court  finds, 
upon  the  day  fixed  for  the  hearing  of  juvenile  cases,  that  he  has, 
perhaps,  twenty-five  cases  on  his  docket,  and  to  him  they  are  all 
new  cases.  Most  of  them  originated  in  the  magistrates'  courts  or 
in  the  station-houses. 

The  parent  or  parents  of  a  child  or  children,  for  instance,  may 
have  been  arrested  for  drunkenness  or  vagrancy.  The  magistrate 
hearing  the  case  sends  the  parents  perhaps  to  the  House  of  Cor- 
rection, and  then  something  must  be  done  for  the  immediate  care  of 
the  children.  They  are  turned  over  to  the  Children's  Aid  Society 
or  the  Society  to  Protect  Children  from  Cruelty.  On  the  day  for 
the  hearing  of  juvenile  cases,  the  children  will  be  brought  in  by  the 
Society's  agents,  and  a  petition  will  be  filed  setting  forth  briefly 
the  facts. 

Sometimes  the  children  are  abandoned  or  homeless  waifs 
turned  over  to  the  Society  by  the  police. 

The  Judge  sitting  in  the  Juvenile  Court  proceeds  to  inquire 
carefully  into  each  case.  He  has  the  assistance  of  the  prior  exam- 
ination into  the  facts  of  each  case  by  the  Society's  agents.  Som.e- 
times  the  power  of  the  Court  is  invoked  to  compel  the  attendance 
of  relatives,  or  even  of  parents.  After  a  careful  hearing,  the  case 
of  each  child  is  decided,  and  a  decree  made.  The  testimony  heard 
is  taken  down  in  a  short  narrative  form  by  a  stenographer,  and 
then  typewritten  and  filed  for  future  reference.  If  the  Judge 
is  satisfied  that  the  parent  or  parents  of  a  child  ought  not  to  have 
the  custody  of  the  child,  but  are  able  to  contribute  to  its  support, 
he  may  make  an  order  requiring  the  payment  of  such  sum  as  the 
circumstances  warrant.  Children  are  sometimes  turned  over  to 
relatives,  and  sometimes  to  a  charitable  society,  regard  being  had 
always  to  the  religion  of  the  child  in  selecting  the  society 

Delinquents  generally  come  into  court  from  the  magistrates' 
courts;  sometimes  directly,  sometimes  from  prison. 

Now  that  the  act  is  being  better  understood,  and  its  benefits 
more  generally  appreciated  by  the  magistrates  and  the  police,  a 


The  Juvenile   Court  in  PJiiladelpliia  273 

probation  officer  is  usually  advised  when  a  "delinquent"  is  taken 
into  custody.  The  hearings  are  generally  held  by  the  magistrate 
at  the  station-house,  and  in  a  large  number  of  cases,  perhaps  in  a 
majority  of  cases,  a  probation  officer  is  present  to  hear  the  testi- 
mony against  the  child  and  to  set  on  foot  an  investigation  not  only 
of  the  charge  on  which  the  child  is  held,  but  as  to  his  or  her  previous 
record  and  home  life  and  surroundings.  It  is  earnestly  to  be  hoped 
that  all  our  police  lieutenants  and  police  magistrates  will  speedily 
come  to  appreciate  how  greatly  the  probation  officer  can  assist 
them  and  the  Court,  and  will  let  no  case  be  heard  without  having 
previously  notified  the  nearest  probation  officer. 

It  is  in  the  handling  of  these  "delinquent"  cases  that  the 
Judge  has  the  most  delicate  and  difficult  tasks  imposed  on  him. 
Sometimes  the  boy  or  girl  is  charged  with  some  trifling  offence, 
and  the  investigation  made  by  the  probation  officer  shows  that  the 
child  is  not  really  bad.  The  probation  officer  goes  to  the  child's 
home;  if  he  attends  school  she  calls  on  his  school-teacher;  if  he 
attends  Sunday  school  she  communicates  with  the  Sunday  school 
teacher;  if  he  works,  she  goes  to  his  employer,  and  endeavors  in 
every  way  to  ascertain  what  the  child's  previous  life  has  been  and 
what  his  home  surroundings  are. 

Sometimes  it  is  apparent  that  even  where  the  child  is  not  de- 
praved or  incorrigible,  it  is  best  for  his  sake  that  he  shall  not  be 
returned  to  his  home.     A  single  case  will  serve  as  an  illustration. 

Recently,  a  boy  of  thirteen  was  arrested  for  larceny.  He  was 
guilty.  His  father  was  a  drunken  brute.  His  mother  was  a  hard- 
working, honest  woman,  but  in  the  household  she  was  a  mere 
drudge,  without  voice  or  influence.  The  father  sent  the  boy  upon 
the  street  to  steal.  The  Judge  before  whom  the  case  came,  heard 
the  father  and  mother.  The  father  promised  to  behave  himself. 
The  mother  begged  to  have  the  boy  returned  to  her.  He  was  sent 
home,  and  a  probation  officer  appointed  in  his  case.  Two  months 
later,  the  boy  was  again  arrested  for  larceny.  The  case  against 
him  was  clear.  This  time  the  Court  refused  to  listen  to  the  plead- 
ings or  the  promises  of  the  parents,  and  committed  the  boy  to  the 
House  of  Refuge.  The  first  time  the  boy  was  in  the  Juvenile 
Court  was  perhaps  not  the  first  time  he  had  offended.  Had  we 
had  a  Juvenile  Court  into  which  he  could  have  been  taken  when 
he  made  his  first  departure  from  the  path  of  rectitude  he  would 
have  been  perhaps  committed  to  the  Children's  Aid  Society,  and 


V 


274  ^/^^  Annals  of  the  Avia'ican  Academy 

that  Society  would  have  found  him  a  home  with  some  Christian 
family  and  his  whole  life  would  have  been  changed  for  the  better. 
As  it  is,  he  has  been  committed  to  an  institution  whose  splendid 
work  in  reclaiming  incorrigibles  gives  every  hope  that  the  boy  will 
yet  turn  out  a  good  citizen. 

What  to  do  with  a  bad  boy  is  a  problem  as  old  as  time.  If  the 
wisdom  of  the  past  had  given  us  one  formula  to  follow,  the  task 
imposed  on  the  Judge  dealing  with  "delinquents"  would  be  simple, 
but  the  question  every  time  it  arises  is  as  new  and  as  difficult  as 
I  when  it  was  first  presented.  That  some  boys  would  be  better  off 
if  severely  punished,  the  first  time  they  lie  or  steal,  is  undoubtedly 
true.  That  the  way  of  the  transgressor  is  hard  ought  to  be  taught 
;  both  as  a  moral  precept  and  an  actual  fact.  Still,  the  question  in 
every  case  is,  how  shall  this  boy  be  handled?  With  the  best  mo- 
tives and  after  the  most  careful  and  patient  inquiry,  the  Judge 
can  at  best  but  guess.  To  send  the  boy  home  from  Court  after 
his  guilt  had  been  confessed  or  established,  and  do  nothing  more, 
as  was  frequently  the  old  way,  was  often  to  give  rise  to  the  belief 
on  the  part  of  the  boy  that  the  law  is  not  stern  but  lenient,  and  that 
after  all,  to  steal,  to  be  caught,  to  be  convicted  and  to  face  a  Court 
is  not  a  serious  but  a  trifling  matter.  To  his  companions  the  re- 
leased boy  was  often  a  sort  of  a  hero.  The  bad  effect  on  him  reached 
to  all  who  were  of  his  age  and  class  and  knew  of  his  lucky  escape. 
On  the  other  hand,  to  refuse  to  send  the  boy  home  left  but  one 
alternative,  to  commit  him  to  prison  or  to  the  House  of  Refuge. 

Whether  committed  or  sent  home,  the  boy  was  given  but  little 
chance  in  comparison  to  that  which  the  Court  can,  under  the  Ju- 
venile Court  Act,  now  extend  to  him. 

This  brings  us  to  consider  the  probation  officer. 

The  act  says.  Section  6 : 

"The  Court  shall  appoint  or  designate  one  or  more  discreet 
persons,  of  good  character,  to  serve  as  probation  officers  during 
the  pleasure  of  the  Court;  said  probation  officers  to  receive  no 
compensation  from  the  public  treasur}-.  In  case  a  probation 
officer  shall  be  appointed  by  any  Court,  it  shall  be  the  duty  of  the 
Clerk  of  the  Court,  if  practicable,  to  notify  the  said  probation 
officer  in  advance  wdien  any  child  is  to  be  brought  before  the  said 
Court;  it  shall  be  the  dut}^  of  the  said  probation  officer  to  make 
such  investigation  as  may  be  required  by  the  Court,  to  be  present 
in  order  to  represent  the  interests  of  the  child  when  the  case  is 


Tlic  Juvenile   Court  in  Philadelphia  275 

heard,  to  furnish  to  the  Court  such  information  and  assistance  as 
the  Judge  may  require,  and  to  take  such  charge  of  any  child  before 
and  after  trial  as  may  be  directed  by  the  Court." 

Section  9  is:  "  In  the  case  of  a  delinquent  cliild  the  Court  may 
continue  the  hearing  from  time  to  time,  and  may  commit  the  child 
to  the  care  and  guardianship  of  a  probation  officer  duly  appointed 
by  the  Court,  and  may  allow  said  child  to  remain  in  its  own  home 
subject  to  the  visitation  of  the  probation  officer,  such  child  to  report 
to  the  probation  officer  as  often  as  may  be  required,  and  subject  to 
be  returned  to  the  Court  for  further  proceedings  whenever  such 
action  may  appear  to  be  necessary ;  or  the  Court  may  commit  the 
child  to  the  care  and  guardianship  of  the  probation  officer,  to  be 
placed  in  a  suitable  family  home,  subject  to  the  friendly  super- 
vision of  such  probation  officer;  or  it  may  authorize  the  said  pro- 
bation officer  to  board  out  the  said  child  in  some  suitable  family 
home,  in  case  provision  is  made  by  voluntary  contribution  or  other- 
wise for  the  payment  of  the  board  of  such  child,  until  a  suitable 
provision  may  be  made  for  the  child  in  a  home  without  such  pay- 
ment ;  or  the  Court  may  commit  the  child  to  a  suitable  institution 
for  the  care  of  delinquent  children." 

It  is  just  here  that  the  Juvenile  Court  Act,  in  my  judg- 
ment, offers  its  greatest  good  and  opens  up  a  new  chance  to 
deal  intelligently  with  the  case  of  a  delinquent.  Instead  of  making 
the  child  promise  to  be  good,  and  sending  him  home,  the  Court 
places  him  in  charge  of  a  probation  officer,  and  then  lets  him  go 
home.  Sometimes  the  result  is  that,  for  the  first  time  a  boy  is  given 
a  fair  chance  in  the  battle  of  life  to  make  something  of  himself. 
Many  of  the  cases  of  delinquents  brought  into  Court  exhibit  weak- 
ness, incapacity,  and  sometimes  a  worse  condition  on  the  part  of 
the  parents.  Their  offending  is  sometimes  passive,  sometimes  ac- 
tive. The  probation  officer  becomes  the  boy's  watchman  and  his 
friend,  guarding  him  against  himself,  and,  in  some  cases,  against 
his  parents. 

A  few  months'  practical  working  of  the  act  has  shown  what  a 
wonderful  agency  for  good  the  probation  officer  is.  I  shall  speak 
of  the  officer  in  the  feminine,  because  most  of  them  are  women. 

She  has,  by  reason  of  her  appointment  by  the  Court,  an  official 
position.  Her  station  is  one  of  grave  responsibility  and  great 
honor,  but  of  no  profit.  The  act  distinctly  says  that  the  officer 
shall  receive  no  compensation  from  the  public  treasury.     This  will 


2^^  The  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 

keep  them  from  the  contaminating  touch  of  party  politics,  and 
prevent  this  particular  office  being  sought  after. 

The  probation  officer  is  the  child's  friend,  but  the  Court's 
adviser.  Each  boy  is  kept  under  surveillance.  If,  after  the  prom- 
ises he  and  his  parents  have  made  to  the  Court,  he  stays  away  from 
school  (if  his  parents  can  send  him)  or  refuses  to  work  or  goes  with 
his  former  associates,  if  they  are  bad  boys,  he  is  warned,  and  if  he 
will  not  mend  his  ways,  he  is  brought  back  to  Court,  and  then  the 
Judge  has  more  knowledge  of  the  case  to  guide  him  in  intelligent 
action. 

The  first  session  of  the  Juvenile  Court  in  Philadelphia  was  held 
July,  1 90 1.  Since  that  time  there  have  been,  up  to  May  21,  1902, 
1,378  cases  before  the  Court.  Of  these,  481  have  been  dependents, 
and  897  delinquents.  But  fifty-six  have  been  sent  to  the  House 
of  Refuge,  and  of  the  rest  (returned  to  their  homes  in  almost 
every  case)  but  thirty-three  have  been  before  the  Court  a 
second  time.  Most  of  these  were  given  a  second  chance,  and  in  but 
one  case  has  the  Court  had  a  boy  brought  back  more  than  once. 
He  was,  on  his  fourth  appearance  before  the  Court,  committed  to 
the  House  of  Refuge. 

One  probation  officer  to  whom  since  last  July  nearly  one  hun- 
dred children  have  been  committed,  told  me  recently  that  she  had 
had  but  one  child  backslide.  Surely  such  a  record  would  be,  if 
there  were  no  more  like  it,  sufficient  warrant  for  saying  that  the  act- 
will  do  great  good. 

The  whole  scheme  of  the  act  is  to  prevent  delinquents  from 
becoming  criminals.  It  is  an  act  for  child-saving.  Its  benefits, 
though  conferred  directly  upon  the  child,  are  reaped  by  the  entire 
community.  It  is  the  ounce  of  prevention  which  is  far,  far  better 
than  the  pound  of  cure.  It  aims  to  place  the  erring  child,  of  years 
too  tender  to  yet  fully  appreciate  the  dangers  ahead,  under  the 
restraining  and  guiding  hand  of  an  officer  of  the  Court,  who  is  at  the 
same  time  the  child's  friend. 

The  restraint  is  that  of  oversight;  the  guidance  that  of  kindly 
admonition  and  advice,  backed  by  that  power  everywhere  recog- 
nized, the  power  of  the  law. 


Juvenile  Courts  in  Buffalo 


By  Frederic  Alray,  Secretary  Charity  OrgaDization  Society, 

Buffalo 


(277) 


JUVENILE  COURTS  IN  BUFFALO 

By  Frederic  Almy 
Secretary  and  Treasurer  Charity  Organization  Society.  Buflfalo 


Juvenile   probation   is   no   new  thing.     It   has  been  used  in 
l^    Massachusetts  since   1869,  or  for  over  thirty  years,  and  for  the 
same  length  of    time  in  that   state  a  statute  has  required  that 
children's  cases  should  be  "heard  and  determined  by  themselves, 
separate  from  the  general  and  ordinary  criminal  business  of  said 
courts."     There  is  no  separate  children's  court  in  Massachusetts, 
but  in  some  of  the  courts  the  session  for  adults  is  formally  ad- 
journed, and  the  room  is  cleared  of  all  except  those  who  have  to  do 
with  the  juvenile  cases;  in  other  courts  the  session  for  juveniles  is 
held  in  a  separate  room  or  in  the  judge's  private  room.     In  either 
case  there  are  evils,  as  is  shown  in  a  letter  from  Mr.  Charles  W. 
Birtwell,  secretary  of  the  Massachusetts  Children's  Aid  Society: 
"Unfortunately  in  all  the  courts  juveniles  under  arrest  are  apt 
to  be  mixed  with  adults  while  waiting  during  the  hour  or  so  preced- 
ing the  trial.     If  not  under  arrest  but  only  summoned,  they  may 
wait  in  the  outside  lobbies,  but  get  more  or  less  mixed  with  the 
throng  about  and  in  the  court  room." 

The  first  juvenile  court  was  opened  in  Chicago  in  1S99  and  at 
once  had  wide  notice,  largely  through  the  excellent  work  of  the 
monthly  periodical,  the  Chicago  Juvenile  Record.  It  was  through 
this  juvenile  court  that  the  probation  system  first  became  general. 
Mr.  Folks  tells  us,  in  his  "Care  of  Delinquent  Children,"  that  "the 
system  did  not  secure  formal  adoption,  so  far  as  we  are  aware,  in 
/  anv  other  state  than  Massachusetts  until  the  enactment  of  the 
^  juvenile  court  law  in  Illinois  in  1899."  "In  1901,"  he  says,  "the  y 
probation  system  is  in  actual  operation,  or  is  provided  for  by 
statute,  in  fifteen  of  the  twenty-five  largest  cities  of  the  United 
States,"  and  the  number  is  now  rapidly  increasing.  It  is  another 
instance  of  the  contagion  of  ideas  which  in  this  century  outstrips 
the  contagion  of  disease. 

On  February  26,  1900,  the  Buffalo  Charity  Organization  So- 
ciety appointed  a  committee  on  probation  which  held  several  meet- 
ings, but  found  that  nothing  could  be  done  without  legislation, 

(279) 


U" 


\y 


280  TJic  Annals  of  tlic  American  Academy 

which  it  was  then  too  late  to  procure.  A  law  passed  May  i,  1901, 
through  the  efforts  of  this  committee,  allowed  the  Buffalo  police 
justice  to  suspend  sentence  with  juvenile  delinciuents,  and  place 
them  under  probation  for  a  term  not  exceeding  three  months.  The 
act  allowed  him  to  appoint  five  unsalaried  probation  officers,  and 
provided  that  when  practicable  the  probation  officer  should  be 
of  the  same  faith  as  the  child  placed  in  his  care.  The  court 
opened  July  i,  1901.  By  an  amendment  passed  in  February,  1902, 
the  number  of  probation  officers,  still  unpaid,  was  increased  to  ten, 
and  authority  was  given  to  extend  the  probation  for  additional 
terms  of  three  months  in  the  discretion  of  the  judge.  A  state 
probation  law  was  also  passed  in  1901,  but  was  so  amended  that  it 
applied  only  to  those  over  sixteen  years  of  age.  Consequently  in 
New  York  State,  outside  of  Buffalo,  a  chance  is  given  to  adult 
delinquents  which  is  denied  to  little  children. 

Under  the  new  New  York  City  charter  a  juvenile  court  was 
created  for  the  boroughs  of  Manhattan  and  Bronx  (excluding 
Brooklyn),  but  with  no  provision  for  probation.  This  juvenile 
court  was  to  open  January  i,  1902,  but  for  some  reason  did  not 
do  so.  ♦ 

Judge  Murphy,  of  the  Buffalo  Police  Court,  was  an  active  mem- 
ber of  the  committee  of  the  Charity  Organization  Society  which 
procured  the  probation  law.  Although  the  law  was  permissive 
only,  he  at  once  put  it  into  effect,  and  also  on  his  own  motion  trans- 
ferred all  his  juvenile  cases  to  a  separate  building,  several  blocks 
distant  from  the  police  court,  where  he  holds  his  juvenile  court  on 
Tuesday  and  Friday  afternoons.  The  great  success  of  the  court 
in  Buffalo  is  chiefly  due  to  his  interest.  Where  for  any  reason  a 
good  judge  is  not  available  a  juvfenile  court  must  suffer,  for  pro- 
bation gives  many  opportunities  for  favoritism  to  both  the  judge 
and  the  probation  officers.  It  is  hardly  too  much  to  say  that  the 
character  of  the  court  will  be  the  same  as  the  character  of  the  judge. 

Of  the  ten  probation  officers  in  Buffalo  all  are  unpaid  for  this 
special  work,  but  two  are  truant  officers,  two  are  officers  of  the 
Charity  Organization  Society,  and  one  is  the  head  worker  of  Wel- 
come Hall,  a  leading  settlement.  The  city  is  divided  into  two 
districts,  in  each  of  which  there  are  a  Catholic  and  a  Protestant  fe- 
male officer  for  the  girls  and  the  younger  boys,  and  a  Catholic  and 
a  Protestant  male  officer  for  the  older  boys.  There  are  a  Jewish 
officer  and  a  Polish  officer  for  the  city  at  large. 


Jiivcnilc   Courts  in  Buffalo  281 

It  is  not  perhaps  desirable  to  recapitulate  here  the  peculiarities 
of  all  the  juvenile  courts.  In  Massachusetts  and  St.  Louis  the 
probation  officers  are  paid.  In  New  Jersey  the  court  costs  are  paid 
them.  In  Chicago,  Pennsylvania,  I\lilwaukee  and  Buffalo  they  are 
unpaid,  or  paid  from  private  sources.  In  Chicago  the  probation 
is  until  the  child's  majority.  In  Boston,  as  in  Buffalo,  it  is  for 
short  terms  renewable  on  their  expiration.  It  seems  as  if  the  short 
term  would  give  the  child  a  goal  in  sight  and  so  help  his  striving. 

The  Buffalo  juvenile  court  has  not  quite  completed  its  first 
year,  and  no  definite  records  have  been  compiled,  but  two  results 
are  already  notable — the  decrease  in  the  number  of  commitments 
to  the  truant  school  and  to  reformatories,  and  the  increase  in 
the  number  of  children  arrested.  The  first  result  was  expected,  for. 
man}''  children  are  now  cared  for  in  their  homes  under  probation 
who  would  otherwise  have  to  be  sent  to  the  public  truant  school  or 
to  a  reformatory.  The  second  result  was  not  anticipated,  but  is 
in  this  way  excellent.  Much  juvenile  lawlessness  formerly  ran  riot 
without  arrest  because  the  officers  knew  that  the  judge  would  not 
send  a  child  away  for  petty  offences,  and  mere  rebuke  meant  so 
little  that  the  child  fresh  from  court  would  jeer  at  the  officer 
•who  had  arrested  him.  With  probation  an  arrest  is  taken  more 
seriously  by  the  children.  At  a  recent  session  of  the  court  Judge/ 
Murphy  called  attention  to  this  increase  in  the  number  of  arrests, 
and  recommended  legislation  which  should  make  convictions  in  the 
juvenile  court  inadmissible  as  evidence  of  character  in  either  civil 
or  criminal  actions,  so  that  mere  juvenile  peccadilloes  could  not 
constitute  a  criminal  record. 

The  economy  of  probation  greatly  reinforces  the  support  of 
the  systein  on  ethical  grounds.  It  is  not  often  that  a  meastu-e  of 
social  reform  makes  an  immediate  appeal  to  the  taxpayer,  but 
probation  relieves  him  from  the  public  maintenance  of  many  de- 
linquents who  under  this  plan  are  maintained  at  home  at  their 
parents'  charge.  In  Massachusetts,  where  probation  has  been  in 
operation  many  years,  the  district  attorney  has  prepared  figures 
showing  that  it  has  saved  the  state  much  more  than  the  cost  of 
its  operation,  though  it  is  administered  there  by  salaried  pro- 
bation officers.  On  the  side  of  morality  the  saving  is  still  greater, 
though  less  definite.  If  this,  saving  of  character  could  be  trans- 
lated into  dollars  and  cents  the  cash  gain  to  the  state  through  the 


y 


282  The  Aiinals  of  the  American  Academy 

diminution  of  crime  would  be  seen  to  be  even  greater  than  the 
saving  in  maintenance. 

Again,  the  presence  daily  in  the  court  of  a  group  of  disin- 
terested men  and  women  of  character  helps  to  maintain  the  moral 
tone  of  the  court.  They  sometimes  see  things  which  the  court 
unaided  might  not  see.  More  than  once  in  Buffalo  pettifogging 
lawyers,  who  have  been  reaping  fees  from  parents  on  the  pretence 
that  their  services  caused  the  judge  to  put  children  on  probation 
instead  of  sending  them  away,  have  been  excluded  from  the  court 
on  report  of  the  probation  officers  as  to  their  practices. 

The  teachers  usually  co-operate  willingly  in  filling  out  the 
weekly  cards  which  show  the  behavior  and  the  attendance  of  a 
child  while  on  probation,  and  they  use  their  influence  to  hold 
children  to  their  best.  Some  have  spoken  with  wonder  of  the 
favorable  effect  of  probation  on  the  school  work. 

A  day  in  a  juvenile  court  is  fascinating,  and  the  experiences 
of  a  probation  officer  are  not  less  so.  The  little,  curly-headed 
culprits  are  so  anxious  to  tell  their  story  to  the  judge,  or  some- 
times so  stolid,  that  either  way  it  is  pathetic.  There  is  much  weep- 
ing when  children  are  found  guilty,  and  sudden  relief  when  the 
meaning  of  probation  is  explained  to  them,  and  the  confidences 
made  to  the  probation  officer  are  irresistible.  In  many  of  the  courts 
the  proceedings  are  quite  informal,  and  the  children  stand  close 
to  the  judge  and  talk  confidentially  with  him,  without  fear. 

The  care  taken  to  keep  children  from  contact  with  the  adult 
criminal  courts  extends  also  to  the  jail.  In  several  states  the  law 
\/  prescribes  that  children  shall  not  be  lodged  either  in  the  jail  or  in 
the  police  court.  If  the  child  is  unable  to  give  bail,  some  place 
other  than  the  jail  or  police  court  must  be  provided.  In  Penn- 
ey sylvania  a  separate  act,  passed  after  the  juvenile  court  law,  au- 
/  "thorizes  the  establishment  of  houses  of  detention.  In  Wisconsin 
it  is  provided  that  when  a  child  has  been  sentenced  he  must  be  kept 
wholly  apart  from  adult  prisoners  until  he  is  committed.  The 
period  after  arrest  and  before  trial  is  also  guarded. 

It  has  been  well  said  that  the  practice  of  arresting  persons 

;        accused  of  minor  offences,  who  are  not  in  the  least  likely  to  fail 

to  appear  if  merely  summoned,  is  a  relic  of  earlier  times  and  should 

be  abandoned.     In  Buffalo  it  is  the  general  practice  on  arrest  to 

take  the  child  to  a  station-house  and  then  let  him  go  home  under 


Juvenile   Courts  in  Buffalo  283 

promise  to  appear  in  court  at  the  time  stated,  and  as  yet  the  e  has 
been  no  failure  to  appear. 

Criminal  law  has  relied  too  much  upon  confinement  and  com- 
pulsion, both  of  which  involve  cost  to  the  state  and  rancor  and 
sullenness  in  the  individual.  The  features  of  probation  are  first, 
the  retention  of  natural  conditions,  in  the  home,  if  it  is  at  all  fit, 
and  second,  loving,  patient,  personal  service.  Instead  of  with-' 
drawing  the  child  from  the  environment  in  which  it  lives,  it  tries 
to  assist  that  environment.  It  is  possible  to  draw  many  analogies. 
In  medicine  we  now  give  fewer  drugs  and  rely  on  the  natural  powers 
of  the  body  with  the  personal  service  of  trained  nurses.  In  charity 
we  give  fewer  alms,  and  rely  on  the  natural  resources  of  the  family 
with  the  personal  service  of  trained  friendly  visitors.  In  govern- 
ment we  use  less  law,  but  rely  on  natural  forces  with  the  aid  of  the  I  V 
Church,  the  school  and  other  instruments  of  social  reform.  J 

With  children  the  question  of  reformation  is  especially  im- 
portant. The  chief  cause  of  crime  has  been  said  to  be  neither 
intemperance,  nor  avarice,  nor  lust,  but  neglected  childhood,  for  ^ 
neglected  childhood  means  neglected  character,  and  at  an  age  when 
character  is  still  plastic .  Children  under  arrest  for  the  first  time 
are  more  peculiarly  susceptible  to  influence  than  even  other  chil- 
dren, and  the  impressions  made  at  this  crisis  go  far  to  fix  their  lives. 
If  you  catch  character  young,  and  at  the  right  moments,  you  can 
do  almost  anything  with  it.  It  is  even  possible  to  confine  the  baser 
parts  of  a  child's  life,  as  the  Chinese  do  the  feet  of  their  children, 
so  that  the  development  of  these  baser  parts  will  be  permanently 
stunted.  Swaddling  environments,  continued  for  years,  can  do 
much  to  form  character  by  compulsion,  so  to  speak,  and  to  thwart 
the  growth  of  what  is  undesirable.  This  exclusion  of  evil  is  the 
method  of  the  military  school  and  of  the  reformatory  of  the  mili- 
tary type.  There  is-  something  unnatural  about  it,  but  there  is 
no  doubt  that  in  this  way  habits  can  be  formed;  and  there  is  an 
inertia  of  character  which  makes  good  habits  difficult  to  break  as 
well  as  bad  ones. 

The  other  method  is  to  leave  the  natural  conditions  with  as    i 
little  disarrangement  as  possible;  to  let  the  feet  grow  and  become    | 
a  support  for  the  whole  body;  to  take  the  activity  which  might 
become  crime  and   turn  it   into  industry;    to    take   the    affection 
which  might  become  lust  and  turn  it  into  love;  and  to  do  all  this 
as  far  as  possible  under  natural  conditions.     It  is  possible  to  do 


284  TJic  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 

this,  not  by  a  high  wall  which  wards  off  all  contamination  but  casts 
a  shadow  on  the  young  ife  within,  but  by  applying  some  antiseptic 
which  will  make  the  contagions  of  daily  life  harmless.  Those  of 
us  who  with  Milton  "  cannot  praise  a  fugitive  and  cloister 'd  vertue, 
unexercis'd  and  unbreath'd,"  believe  that  everywhere  character 
is  better  formed  by  liberty  than  by  force.  Antiseptics  against 
temptation  are  being  found  by  modern  charity.  I  would  wish  to 
leave  a  child  undisturbed  in  its  home,  if  the  home  is  decent,  and 
trust  to  the  Church,  the  school,  the  tenement  house  law  and  the 
settlements,  as  antiseptics  against  contamination;  next  to  this  I 
would  leave  the  child  at  home,  but  under  probation;  next  I  would 
seek  a  foster  home,  well  chosen  and  well  watched;  next,  for  some 
children,  an  open  reformatory  of  the  free  type  exemplified  in  the 
\)  George  Junior  Republic;  and  last,  a  reformatory  of  the  more 
military  type.  In  confinement  a  boy  may  find  himself  kindly  and 
wisely  treated,  but  his  social  side  is  not  much  considered,  and  this 
is  not  in  keeping  with  modern  pedagogy.  Very  inuch  can  be  done 
through  a  boy's  affections. 

Where  the  germ  of  pauperism  or  of  vice  cannot  be  killed,  may 
there  not  be  a  treatment  by  antitoxin,  as  at  the  George  Republic, 
by  deliberately  helping  the  poison  to  run  its  course  in  a  mild  form 
in  order  to  prevent  future  attacks?  It  may  be  well  to  let  a  boy  be 
idle  and  lazy  for  a  time  and  suffer  all  the  consequences  of  hunger 
and  cold;  to  let  him  be  violent,  and  as  a  penalty  be  duly  and  se- 
verely punished  by  his  peers;  in  fact,  to  give  him  a  brief  rehearsal 
of  life  under  natural  conditions  which  will  be  very  profitable  when 
life  arrives  in  grim  earnest.  These  lessons  are  taught  in  a  reforma- 
tory of  the  military  type,  but  the  more  voluntary  and  natural  the 
lesson  is,  and  the  more  the  child  can  be  made  to  feel  that  he  has 
chosen  his  own  course  and  experienced  its  natural  result,  the 
deeper  will  be  the  impress  on  his  life. 

It  seems  to  be  the  lesson  of  the  past  century,  the  lesson  alike 
of  charity,  of  Christianity,  and  of  civilization,  that,  in  fonning 
W  character,  force  must  give  way  to  freedom  with  love.  A  militant 
Christianity  has  already  been  condemned,  and  a  militant  civil- 
ization is  as  bad.  I  believe  in  civilization  by  contact,  in  civiliza- 
\x  tion  by  commerce,  but  not  in  civilization  by  conquest.  Force 
leaves  rancor  and  reaction,  and  the  slower  method  of  Christian 
example  is  more  sure.  The  United  States  has  been  called  the 
pioneer  in  an  age  of  republics,  but  it  is  not  through  its  force,  but 


Juvenile   Courts  in  Buffalo  285 

through  its  example,  that  in  neither  North  nor  South  America  is 
there  to  be  found  a  king.  The  repubHcs  of  Central  and  South 
America  stumble  and  fall  and  make  many  errors,  but  they  are 
slowly  developing  good  secondary  education  and  commercial  sta- 
bility. India  and  Egypt,  with  an  original  civilization  and  under 
as  intelligent  and  benevolent  tutelage  as  the  world  has  ever  known, 
are  less  fit  to-day  for  self-government.  With  boy  life  as  with 
national  Hfe,  we  may  well  stop  to  ask  whether  the  least  possible 
interference  and  the  largest  possible  freedom,  even  with  all  the 
mistakes  and  struggles  which  this  involves,  will  not  build  character 
most  surelv  in  the  end. 


Appendix 


(287) 


Report  of  the  Academy  Committee  on  the  Sixth  Annual  Meeting. 

SIXTH   ANNUAL  MEETING 


OF    THE 


American     Academy     of     Political     and 
Social   Science 

Philadelphia,  April  4  and 5,  ipo2 


"SOCIAL  LEGISLATION  AND  SOCIAL  ACTIVITY  " 

The  Sixth  Annual  Meeting  not  only  met  the  expectations  of 
your  Committee,  but  was  generally  regarded  by  those  who  attended 
as  completely  fulfilling  the  high  standards  which  were  set  by  its 
predecessors.  The  sessions  were  largely  attended  by  members  from 
different  parts  of  the  country;  in  fact,  the  leading  characteristic  of 
this  meeting  was  the  large  attendance  from  points  at  a  considerable 
distance  from  Philadelphia.  The  Annual  Meeting  of  the  Academy 
has  assumed  the  proportion  of  a  national  convention  to  consider 
the  great  economic  and  political  questions  that  confront  the 
country. 

Before  proceeding  to  an  account  of  the  individual  sessions  your 
Committee  desires  to  express  its  thanks  as  well  as  those  of  the  offi- 
cers and  members  of  the  Academy  to  the  Provost  of  the  University 
of  Pennsylvania,  to  the  President  and  Directors  of  the  Manufac- 
turers' Club  and  to  the  Committee  of  the  Octavia  Hill  Association, 
whose  co-operation  was  of  great  value  in  making  the  meeting  a 
success. 

The  expenses  of  the  Annual  Meeting  were  met  in  part  from  an 
appropriation  from  the  treasury  of  the  Academy,  but  in  the  main 
by  a  special  fund  contributed  by  generous  friends  of  the  Academy. 
Your  Committee  desires  especially  to  express  its  appreciation  of  the 
services  of  those  who  took  active  part  in  the  meetings  and  whose 
contributions  give  to  this  volume  its  chief  importance. 

(2S9) 


290  The  Atinals  of  the  American  Academy 

Session  of  Friday  Afternoon,  April  4. 
Topic:  "  The  Child  Labor  Problem.'' 

The  President  of  the  Academy,  in  ormally  opening  the  Annual 
Meeting,   said 

Members  of  the  Academy,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen. 

It  gives  m2  great  pleasure  fo  mally  to  open  the  Sixth  Annual 
Meeting  of  the  Academy.  The  series  of  meetings,  beginning  with 
the  discussion  of  "The  Foreign  Policy  of  the  United  States,"  four 
years  ago,  and  taking  up  thereafter  "Corporations  and  Public  Wel- 
fare "  and  "America's  Race  Problem,"  has  furnished  us  with  a  series 
of  volumes  which  have  coine  to  be  standard  reference  works  on  the 
subjects  with  which  they  deal.  It  is  safe  to  say  that  the  Sixth 
Annual  Meeting,  which  is  devoted  to  the  subject  of  "  Social  Legisla- 
tion and  Social  Activity,"  will  not  fall  behind  the  others,  either  in 
the  interest  of  the  topics  or  in  the  character  of  the  discussions. 
These  Annual  Meetings  of  the  Academy  focus  the  best  thought 
upon  the  questions  which  are  in  the  foreground  of  public  attention. 

The  subject  for  discussion  this  afternoon  is  one  which,  as  you 
know,  has  been  agitating  different  sections  of  the  country  at  dif- 
ferent periods.  Your  Committee  has  succeeded  in  securing  a  rep- 
resentation of  the  different  points  of  view  in  the  discussion  of  the 
afternoon.  We  are  also  fortunate  in  having,  as  presiding  officer 
of  the  afternoon,  one  of  the  leading  manufacturers,  and  it  is  safe 
to  say,  one  of  the  most  public-spirited  citizens  of  Philadelphia. 
You  all  know  his  services  to  our  city,  but  I  am  not  sure  whether 
many  of  you  know  how  close  and  careful  a  student  of  industrial 
conditions  in  both  the  North  and  South  he  has  been.  I  take 
pleasure  in  presenting  to  you  Mr.  Frank  Leake. 

On  taking  the  chair,  Mr.  Leake  said : 

Mr.  P7'-eside7it  and  Members  of  the  America7i  Academy  of  Political 
and  Social  Science. 

It  was  with  pleasure  that  I  accepted  your  President's  invita- 
tion to  preside  here  to-day.  The  particular  subject  which  you  are 
to  discuss  is  one  having  a  very  important  bearing  on  the  future  of 
this  country,  because  at  the  bottom  of  all  progress  is  education,  and 
child  labor,  if  not  properly  regulated,  will  certainly  prevent  proper 
education. 


Appendix  29 1 

I  am,  as  you  •  President  has  said,  a  practical  manufacturer,  and 
yet  here  in  Philadelphia,  where  my  work  lies,  we  have  very  little  of 
the  child  labor  problem  to  contend  with;  it  is  almost  self- regulating. 
There  are  very  few  manufacturers  who  do  not  fall  in  line,  not  only 
gracefully  but  gladly,  with  the  laws  of  our  state  which  regulate  that 
matter  for  them.  There  is  very  little  of  child  labor  in  the  textile 
mills  of  this  city,  or  of  this  state,  so  far  as  I  am  acquainted. 

Whatever  is  done  in  the  way  of  regulating  child  labor  should 
be  done  in  a  very  conservative  and  open-minded  spirit.  The  one 
seeking  prog  ess  should  be  willing  to  consider  local  conditions. 
The  key  to  the  whole  situation  will  be  found  in  local  conditions, 
because  child  labor  at  one  point  in  our  country  does  not  present 
anything  like  the  same  problem  that  it  does  in  another  portion  of 
the  country. 

The  Pennsylvania  laws,  for  the  most  part,  are  wise  in  their 
treatment  of  this  question.  I  know  of  no  organized  opposition  to 
the  entire  and  careful  enforcement  of  these  laws.  I  am  speaking 
more  particularly  in  regard  to  textiles.  That  is  my  business  and 
that  is  the  line  in  which  the  New  South  is  finding  her  great  industrial 
development.  In  the  South,  textile  mills  started  originally  with 
the  idea  that  proximity  to  the  cotton  fields  was  the  great  desidera- 
tum. It  has  been  found  that  the  question  of  proximity  does  not 
have  much  to  do  with  their  success.  Freights  on  raw  materials 
North  are  as  low,  or  lower,  than  freights  on  the  finished  product, 
and  in  the  North  and  West  is  where  the  finished  product  finds  its 
largest  market.  Such  being  the  case,  the  mills  in  the  South  have 
had  to  study  the  other  problems  that  have  come  to  be  talked  about 
in  making  their  success  sure,  but  in  studying  these  problems  they 
have  found  instinctively  that  the  same  conditions  make  for  their 
success  as  made  for  the  success  of  the  mills  in  the  North.  Long 
years  ago  our  New  England  forefathers  found  a  sterile  and  rocky 
soil.  They  found  it  very  difficult  to  get  a  living  from  the  farm, 
and  so  turned  their  attention  to  manufacturing.  In  the  South  along 
the  coasts  and  in  the  middle  country  the  soil  is  very  rich  and  very 
fertile  and  the  people  get  their  profit  from  the  farm.  It  has  always 
been  an  agricultural  section,  but  the  mountain  farms  are  the  ones 
where  the  ground  is  sterile,  where  the  soil  is  frequently  washed  into 
the  streams  and  where  farming  is  on  a  very  small  scale.  The 
Southern  mountaineer  has  his  home  in  a  little  cabin  with  a  little 
patch  of  corn  at  the  rear.     Corn  and  bacon  are  the  staple  articles 


292  The  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 

of  food.  The  whites  largely  predominate  in  the  mountain  sec- 
tions. At  the  foot  of  the  Allegheny  Mountains,  the  Appalachian 
Chain,  extending  through  North  and  South  Carolina,  Northern 
Georgia  and  Northern  Alabama,  are  conditions  which  should  be 
considered  in  taking  up  the  problem  of  child  labor.  The  people  live 
in  little  mountain  huts  year  in  and  year  out,  scarcely  seeing  ten, 
twenty,  very  few  of  them  seeing  fifty  dollars  in  cash  a  year.  The 
cotton  mill  has  come  in  there,  going  on  the  farms,  taking  the  work- 
ers from  them  and  bringing  whole  families  into  the  manufacturing 
town.  The  farmer  takes  the  little  cottage  built  for  him  by  the 
company,  with  a  little  patch  of  ground,  given  him  on  the  supposi- 
tion that  he  will  cultivate  it.  Frequently  the  ground  is  not  culti- 
vated, and  the  man  finds  his  employment  in  carrying  the  dinner- 
pail,  while  the  wife,  the  older  daughters  and  the  older  boys  work  in 
the  mill.  The  younger  ones  are  anxiotis  to  follow.  These  condi- 
ditions  are  an  advance  over  what  they  have  had,  and  they  should 
be  advanced  slowly  and  by  degrees  to  anything  which  would  be 
more  theoretically  correct.  Practically  they  have  the  advance. 
In  any  question  involving  child  labor,  it  is  well  to  consider  the  local 
situation  and  the  previous  condition  of  those  whom  you  are  seeking 
to  benefit. 

The  first  speaker  this  afternoon  is  a  gentleman  who  has  had 
every  opportunity  to  study  the  subject  given  to  him.  I  am  very 
glad  that  your  President  has  had  the  wisdom,  instead  of  picking 
those  who  look  at  these  things  solely  from  an  academic  standpoint, 
to  take  those  men  who  have  come  into  actual  contact  with  the 
subject  itself,  men  who  have  brought  their  best  thought  to  the 
practical  solving  of  this  question,  who  desire  in  their  everyday  walk 
of  life  to  be  of  benefit  to  their  fellow-men,  and  while  they  are  solving 
the  hard  problems  of  life,  with  which  they  must  necessaril}^  deal  in 
their  business,  are  seeking  always  to  help  and  uplift  those  around 
them.  Such  a  man  is  Mr.  Franklin  N.  Brewer,  General  Manager  of 
the  largest  department  store  in  this  city,  who  will  address  you  on 
the  subject  of  "Child  Labor  in  the  Department  Store." 

Mr.  Brewer  then  read  his  paper,  which  is  printed  on  pages 
165-177  of  this  volume. 

In  introducing  Mr.  Henry  White,  Mr.  Leake  said: 

The  discussion  of  "Machinery  and  Labor"  has  been  given  to 
one  who  has  distinguished  himself  for  broadmindedness  in  dealing 
with  labor  problems,  who  has  recognized  the  broad  prmciple  that 


Appendix  293 

wherever  advance  is  possible,  either  by  machinery  or  V^y  any  other 
human  function  or  agency,  humanity  is  bound  to  take  advantage 
of  that  possibiUty.  As  the  latent  forces  are  being  developed  in 
machinery,  he  has  also  advocated  that  the  labor  which  it  represents 
should  recognize  that  and  adapt  itself  to  the  new  conditions  with  as 
little  friction  and  as  little  loss  and  with  as  little  captious  criticism 
as  possible.  His  attitude  in  all  of  these  matters  has  been  progressive, 
not  radically  reformative,  but  always  seeking  the  advantage  along 
the  progressive,  conservative  lines  which  make  for  true  progress. 
I  have  pleasure  in  introducing  to  you  Mr.  Henry  White,  General 
Secretary  of  the  United  Garment  Workers  of  America. 

Mr.  White  then  read  his  paper,  which  is  printed  on  pages 
221-231  of  this  volume. 

Following  Mr.  White's  paper  and  in  introducing  Mr.  Hayes 
Robbins,  Mr.  Leake  said: 

As  Mr.  White  has  just  shown,  machinery  is  a  revolutionizer, 
and  machinery  is  so  popular  in  this  age  of  ours  that  it  is  revolutioniz- 
ing all  of  our  methods.  One  of  the  chief  questions  we  have  before 
us  to-day  is  the  harmonizing  of  the  machinery  of  organization  with 
Christian  ethics.  Sociology  to-day  is  advancing  so  far  and  calling 
for  answers  to  so  many  problems  that  it  must  of  necessity  merge 
itself  with  Christianity;  Christianity  must  broaden  and  take  the 
position  the  Master  intended.  All  of  the  Master's  teachings  were 
positive,  not  negative.  Li  Hung  Chang  says  that  the  Confucianists 
have  a  rule  which  is  very  similar  to  our  Golden  Rule.  He  says  very 
truly,  something  very  similar,  but  totally  unlike  in  its  operation. 
I  will  quote  it  to  you.  It  is  in  effect:  "Thou  shalt  not  do  unto 
thy  neighbor  what  thou  wouldst  not  have  thy  neighbor  do  unto 
thee."  Do  unto  others  as  you  would  have  them  do  unto  you,  is 
our  Golden  Rule.  Everything  Chinese  is  negatived;  Christ,  on  the 
other  hand,  taught  the  positive.  His  teachings  send  men  out  into 
the  world  unto  a  life  of  helpfulness  and  benevolence ;  the  contrary 
is  producing  the  conditions  which  we  find  in  China,  where  every 
man  tries  to  live  unto  himself.  It  is  these  conditions  there  and  here 
which  sociology  and  Christianity  must  of  necessity  take  cognizance 
of  and  unitedly  bring  to  a  conclusion. 

The  next  speaker  to  address  you  has  made  an  extended  tour 
of  the  South  in  company  with  Dr.  Gunton,and  their  findings  coin- 
cide with  my  experience  in  the  same  country.  I  have  made  several 
trips  to  that  section  and  they  have  brought  me  to  ]:)ractically  the 


294  ^^^^  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 

same  conclusion.  I  have  pleasure  in  introducing  the  gentleman 
who  will  speak  on  "The  Necessity  for  Factory  Legislation  in 
the  South,"  Mr.  Hayes  Robbins,  Dean  of  the  Institute  of  Social 
Economics,  New  York. 

Mr.  Robbins  here  presented  his  paper,  which  is  printed  on  pages 
179-188  of  this  volume,  after  which  Mr.  Leake  commented  as 
follows  ujjon  the  ideas  contained  in  the  paper. 

The  people  employed  in  the  Southern  mills  are  for  the  most 
part  descendants  of  the  Scotch-Irish.  They  are  not  seekers  for 
charity,  nor  anything  of  that  sort,  but  the  communities  in  which 
they  live,  or  many  of  them,  are  burdened  with  an  illiterate  popula- 
tion composed  of  blacks,  and  they  are  being  taxed  to  support  that 
population  in  schools.  These  people  coming  down  from  the  moun- 
tains are  bringing  to  them  an  additional  tax.  The  Southern  Edu- 
cational Society,  with  its  headquarters  in  New  York,  has  of  late 
years  taken  cognizance  of  the  conditions  in  which  the  poor  whites  of 
the  South  are  found,  and  it  is  doing  magnificent  work  along  proper 
lines,  without  pauperizing,  and  is  instilling  in  the  hearts  of  these 
people  a  desire  for  education.  I  am  happy  to  add  to  the  speaker's 
remarks  that  this  work  is  bearing  fruit.  The  movement  toward 
better  education  is  increasing  and  it  is  for  me  and  for  you  to  help 
it  along. 

In  closing  the  meeting,  the  President  of  the  Academy  said: 

I  want  to  express  to  the  speakers  of  the  afternoon  the  sincere 
appreciation  of  the  Academy  for  their  valuable  contributions  to  the 
subject.  I  may  say,  furthermore,  that  Dr.  Murphy,  who  has  led 
the  movement  in  the  South  for  the  betterment  of  conditions,  fully 
expected  to  be  here,  but  has  been  taken  seriously  ill  in  New  York 
and  is  now  gradually  recovering  from  an  attack  which  at  one  time 
threatened  his  life.  I  regret  very  much  that  you  had  not  the  op- 
portunity of  listening  to  him,  as  well  as  to  the  paper  prepared  by 
Mrs.  Kelley,  but  you  will  all  have  the  opportunity  of  reading  her 
paper,  as  well  as  the  addresses  presented  at  this  afternoon's  session, 
in  a  volume  containing  the  proceedings  of  the  Annual  Meeting. 

Session  of  Friday  Evening,  April  4. 

The  session  of  Friday  evening  was  devoted  to  the  Annual 
Address,  which  was  delivered  by  the  Honorable  Martin  A.  Knapp, 
Chairman    of    the    Interstate    Commerce    Commission.      Professor 


Appendix  295 

Emory  R.  Johnson,  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania  and  member 
of  the  Isthmian  Canal  Commission,  presided  at  the  meeting. 

Prior  to  the  Annual  Address  the  President  of  the  Academy, 
Professor  L.  S.  Rowc,  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania,  presented 
a  review  of  the  work  of  the  year. 

Professor  Johnson,  in  introducing  Professor  Rowe,  said: 
The  Annual  Meeting  of  the  Academy  has  come  to  be  a  per- 
manent and  important  part  of  the  Society's  activity  The  four 
sessions  lasting  two  days,  enable  the  Academy  to  discuss  with  some 
measure  of  detail  several  phases  of  the  general  subject  which  seems, 
at  the  time  of  the  meeting,  to  be  of  greatest  public  interest.  The 
most  important  of  the  four  sessions  of  the  Academy  is  the  one  at 
which  the  President  of  the  Academy  reviews  the  work  of  the  or- 
ganization and  at  which  the  Annual  Address  is  delivered  by  some 
distinguished  scholar. 

The  work  involved  in  arranging  for  this  Annual  Meeting  is  far 
greater  than  one  would  suppose  who  has  not  undertaken  such  a 
task.     In  order  to  make  these  meetings  a  success,  thought  and 
labor  must  be  given  to  the  subject  for  many  weeks.     Success  always 
seems  easy  until  one  undergoes  the  labor  by  which  success     is 
achieved ;  but  onerous  as  is  the  work  of  arranging  for  the  Annual 
Meeting,  that  constitutes  but  a  part,  and  indeed  a  small  part,  of  the 
administrative  duties  which  devolve   upon  the   President  of  the 
Academy.     We   are   an  organization   of  two  thousand  members, 
about  one-fourth  of  whom  live  in  or  near  the  city  of  Philadelphia. 
The  activities  of  the  organization  are  national  rather  than  local. 
To  keep  up  this  membership  and  to  cause  it  to  increase  rather  than 
to  decline,  to  manage  successfully  the  finances  of  a  scientific  body 
such  as  ours,  and  to  pass  upon  the  many  questions  of  policy  which 
arise  in  the  administration  of  the  Society,  require  the  exercise  of 
sound  judgment  and  a  devotion-to  detail.     If  the  Society  were  to 
pay  its  officers  for  their  work,  the  Board  of  Directors  would  not 
think  of  suggesting  a  remuneration  for  the  President  of  less  than 
$2,000  a  year;  but,  as  you  all  know,  none  of  the  officers  of  the 
Academy  or  editors  of  its  publications  receives  any  pay  whatever. 
The  work  is  entirely  gratuitous  on  their  part. 

The  American  Academy  has  been  most  fortunate  in  its  Presi- 
dents.    During  the  first  eight  of  the  thirteen  years  of  its  existence, 
he  President  and  directing  mind  was  the  honored  founder  of  the 
Academv,    Dr.    Edmund   J.   James.     When    his   academic    duties 


296  Tlic  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 

called  him  to  the  University  of  Chicago,  Professor  Lindsay  succeeded 
him  as  the  administrative  head.  Those  who  know  Professor  Lind- 
say personally  realize  that  he  possesses  in  a  very  marked  degree  the 
ability  to  organize  and  administer.  He  has  most  exceptional  pow- 
ers of  initiation  and  execution. 
.  .  A  few  months  ago,  when  President  Roosevelt  requested  Pro- 

fessor Lindsay  to  take  charge  of  the  important  work  of  administer- 
ing the  educational  system  of  Porto  Rico,  the  Board  of  Directors 
knew  exactly  whom  to  ask  to  succeed  Professor  Lindsay  as  Presi- 
dent of  the  Academy.  As  First  Vice-President  of  the  Academy 
and  for  many  years  a  member  of  its  editorial  board,  Professor  Rowe 
had  manifested  his  zeal  for  the  Academy  and  had  in  many  ways 
aided  the  growth  of  the  organization.  Like  his  predecessors.  Pro- 
fessor Rowe  always  thinks  towards  action,  and  this  natural  trait  of 
mind  has  been  strengthened  by  the  training  which  he  has  received, 
not  only  in  academic  life,  but  in  the  execution  of  responsible  public 
duties.  When  President  McKinley  selected  the  Commission  which 
was  provided  for  under  the  Foraker  Act,  to  revise  and  codify  the 
laws  of  Porto  Rico,  Professor  Rowe  was  made  one  of  the  body  of 
three  men  to  whom  that  task  was  entrusted.  The  Commission 
appointed  by  President  McKinley  was  succeeded  the  following  year 
by  one  provided  for  by  the  laws  of  Porto  Rico  and  appointed  by 
Governor  Allen.  Of  this  second  Commission,  Professor  Rowe  was 
made  the  President,  and  in  that  position  he  has  carried  to  success- 
ful completion  a  thorough  codification  of  the  laws  of  the  island, 
has  worked  out  a  scheme  of  local  government,  and  what  is  perhaps 
most  important  of  all,  his  work  has  been  so  practical  that  the  Porto 
Rican  Legislature  has  adopted,  with  but  slight  changes,  the  recom- 
mendations of  the  Commission. 

At  the  beginning  of  this  calendar  year.  Professor  Rowe  returned 
to  his  duties  at  the  University  of  Pennsylvania.  He  will  now  tell 
you  of  the  work  which  the  Academy  has  done  during  the  past  year, 
and  I  am  sure  we  all  feel  that  what  he  has  already  accomplished, 
in  the  brief  period  of  his  presidency  of  the  Academy  is  an  earnest 
of  a  large  and  most  gratifying  growth  of  our  organization  during  the 
coming  year. 

Dr.  Rowe  then  presented  the  following  review  of  the  work  of 
the  Academy  for  the  year: 


Appendix  297 

Review  of  the  Work  of  the  Academy  for  the  Year  1901-02. 

The  presentation  of  the  work  of  the  Academ)'  during  the  last 
fiscal  year  is  so  closely  bound  up  with  the  activity  of  my  predeces- 
sor that  any  mention  of  the  one  necessarily  involves  reference  to  the 
other.  Those  of  you  who  have  followed  the  work  of  the  Academy 
during  the  last  few  years  thoroughly  appreciate  the  great  work 
which  he  has  accomplished  and  the  splendid  traditions  which  he 
has  left  with  us.  During  the  three  years  of  his  direction  of  the 
affairs  of  the  Academy  as  Acting  President  and  then  as  President, 
the  Academy  has  gradually  drawn  to  its  ranks  the  public-spirited 
men  and  women  of  all  sections  of  the  country,  until  to-day  it  is  the 
most  influential  organization  of  its  kind  in  the  United  States.  Our 
meetings  are  attracting  the  leading  authorities  of  the  country  and 
in  the  publications  of  the  Academy  the  most  advanced  thought  on 
the  great  political,  social  and  economic  questions  is  presented. 

These  results  were  accomplished  by  Dr.  Lindsay  by  reason  of 
his  abiding  faith  in  the  mission  of  an  organization  such  as  ours,  re- 
inforced by  the  high  standards  of  public  service  and  public  duty 
which  he  constantly  kept  in  mind.  His  resignation  as  President 
of  the  Academy,  made  necessary  by  reason  of  his  appointment  as 
Commissioner  of  Education  of  Porto  Rico,  is  a  severe  loss,  some- 
what mitigated  by  the  fact  that  he  still  retains  a  keen  and  lively 
interest  in  our  work. 

The  honor  of  succeeding  him  is  commensurate  with  its  respon- 
sibilities. The  activities  of  the  Academy  have  become  so  manifold 
and  varied  that  the  adequate  performance  of  the  duties  of  those 
entrusted  with  the  direction  of  its  affairs  must  mean  a  severe  strain 
unless  the  co-operation  and  support  of  our  members  is  assured. 
We  are,  in  a  sense,  a  great  co-operative  body,  each  member  of 
which  contributes  his  share  in  the"  study  and  solution  of  the  great 
industrial,  social  and  political  questions  that  confront  our  country. 

The  prospects  of  the  Academy  have  never  been  brighter  than 
at  present,  nor  have  its  opportunities  ever  been  greater.  Whatever 
our  view  as  to  the  direction  which  our  national  affairs  have  taken, 
it  is  clear  to  everyone  that  we  have  reached  a  turning-point  in  both 
our  domestic  and  foreign  policy.  The  need  of  a  forum  for  the  calm 
and  dispassionate  discussion  of  the  many  cjuestions  arising  out  of 
this  change  is  felt  in  every  section  of  the  country.  Our  power  as 
one  of  the  important  enlightening  forces  of  public  opinion  increases 


298  The  A]mals  of  tlic  American  Acadcjny 

with  each  year  and  must  be  met  with  a  keen  sense  of  responsibihty 
not  only  towards  our  members,  but  also  towards  the  community  at 
large.  The  Academy  is  a  national,  not  a  local  organization,  and 
as  such  its  activity  must  be  national  rather  than  local.  Every 
member  of  the  Academy  should  feel  it  not  only  his  privilege,  but 
his  duty,  to  watch  over  the  direction  of  Academy  affairs  and  to 
assure  himself  that  the  organization  is  fulfilling  the  high  mission 
which  constitutes  its  reason  for  existence. 

The  period  since  the  last  Annual  Meeting  has  been  marked  by 
a  number  of  important  scientific  sessions  devoted  to  the  following 
sub  j  ects : 

On  October  31  last,  the  topic  for  discussion  was:  "The  Out- 
look for  Civil  Government  in  the  Philippines,"  at  which  addresses 
were  delivered  by  Dr.  George  F.  Becker,  of  the  U.  S.  Geological 
Survey,  and  Mr,  Abreu,  a  native  Filipino  connected  with  the  War 
Department  at  Washington. 

On  December  13  last,  the  topic  discussed  was:  "The  Pohcy 
of  Commercial  Reciprocity,"  and  the  speakers  of  the  evening  were 
Hon.  John  A.  Kasson  and  Mr.  A.  B.  Farquhar. 

On  March  i  the  subject  of  "The  Extension  of  American  In- 
fluence in  the  West  Indies"  was  considered;  Dr.  L.  S.  Rowe,  of  the 
University  of  Pennsylvania,  delivered  the  address  of  the  evening, 
and  Captain  W.  V.  Judson,  of  the  Corps  of  Engineers,  U.  S.  Army, 
presented  a  discussion  of  the  strategic  considerations  connected 
with  the  topic  of  the  evening. 

The  publications  of  the  Academy,  which  constitute  the  main 
channel  of  communication  between  our  members,  have  kept  in  close 
touch  with  the  trend  of  affairs.  The  plan  of  issuing  separate 
volumes  devoted  to  special  topics  has  been  further  developed  and 
has  met  with  great  success.  In  January  a  special  volume  on 
"Transportation  and  Commerce"  was  issued,  with  such  eminent 
contributors  as  Hon.  Martin  A.  Knapp,  John  Franklin  Crowell,  B. 
H.  Meyer,  Samuel  Pasco,  Emory  R.  Johnson,  H.  T.  Newcomb  and 
Alfred  Nerincx.  In  May  a  special  volume  on  "The  Government  of 
Dependencies"  was  issued,  and  the  July  number  of  The  Annals 
contains  the  proceedings  of  the  Sixth  Annual  IMeeting. 

The  membership  of  the  Academy  at  the  present  time  is  1,990, 
of  which  sixty-two  are  life  members. 

The  magnitude  of  the  Academy's  work  has  forced  upon  your 
Board  of  Directors  the  question  of  adequate  quarters  for  the  library 


Appendix  299 

and  offices  of  the  organization.  At  the  present  time  the  Uni- 
versity of  Pennsylvania  places  at  our  disposal  quarters  in  one  of  tlie 
University  buildings.  The  time  is  soon  coming,  however,  when  the 
work  of  the  Academy  will  require  a  separate  building  with  adequate 
library  facilities.  This  is  a  question  which  I  wish  to  bring  to  the 
attention  of  every  member  of  the  Academy,  and  especiall}'  invite 
their  co-operation  in  devising  means  by  which  this  end  may  be  ac- 
complished. 

From  whatever  point  of  view,  therefore,  we  examine  the  work 
of  the  Academy,  there  is  evidence  of  steady  and  healthy  growth  in 
all  directions.  Our  combined  efforts  must  now  be  directed  towards 
the  further  extension  of  the  work,  for  in  an  organization  such  as 
ours  lack  of  growth  means  retrogression  and  decay. 

Professor  Johnson,  in  introducing  Judge  Knapp,  said: 

When  the  Academy  decided  to  devote  the  Annual  Meeting  to 
a  discussion  of  "Social  Legislation  and  Social  Activity,"  it  was  felt 
that  the  Annual  Address  should  be  devoted  to  the  subject  of  trans- 
portation. Social  activity  is  everywhere,  and  at  all  times,  con- 
ditioned by  the  facilities  for  travel  and  shipment.  They  determine 
the  measure  and  direction  of  social  progress;  and  the  first  and 
possibly  the  greatest  subject  of  social  legislation  is  the  regulation 
of  transportation. 

For  the  consideration  of  this  great  question,  it  was  felt  that  the 
one  man  pre-eminently  qualified  was  the  Chairman  of  the  Inter- 
state Commerce  Commission,  and  not  alone  because  of  his  official 
position,  although  as  the  guiding  mind  of  that  most  dignified  and 
influential  body  he  has  had  unrivaled  facilities  for  acquiring  a  clear 
and  comprehensive  insight  into  the  problems  of  transportation, 
it  was  because  of  his  exceptional  personal  qualities,  because  of  his 
calm  poise  of  judgment,  his  judicial  fairness  that  makes  him  com- 
mand the  respect  and  admiration  alike  of  the  railway  official  and 
the  complainant  shipper,  and  because  of  the  clear  and  lofty  diction 
he  has  employed  in  all  his  numerous  essays  and  public  addresses. 

The  work  of  the  Academ}^  has  had  the  benefit  of  Judge  Knapp's 
frequent  co-operation.  On  the  occasion  of  the  Thirty-fourth 
Scientific  Session  he  addressed  our  Society  upon  the  subject  of  Rail- 
way Pooling,  and  the  able  paper  presented  by  him  was  published 
in  Volume  VIII  of  The  Annals  of  the  Academy.  Judge  Knapp 
again  contributed  to  The  Annals  last  January,  when  a  paper  by 
him  on   "Government   Ownership    of    Railroads"  was  ])ublished. 


300  The  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 

Both  of  these  papers  have  been  highly  serviceable  to  all  students 
of  current  transportation  problems,  and  have  done  much  to  widen 
the  beneficent  educational  influence  of  the  Academy. 

The  trained  jurist  is  not  infrequently  a  cultured  scholar,  but 
it  is  seldom  that  a  man  possesses  in  addition  to  these  attainments 
the  genius  to  instruct  and  the  altruistic  spirit  that  prompts  to  a 
devotion  of  his  talents  to  the  furtherance  of  the  public  good.  Judge 
Knapp's  powers  are  generously  active  for  the  bettement  of  the  age 
in  which  he  lives;  and  it  is  a  i^ou:ce  of  satisfaction  to  the  members 
of  the  Academy  that  the  Society  has  been  one  of  the  agencies  by 
means  of  which  Judge  Knapp  has  given  to  the  public  the  results  of 
his  valuable  experience  and  sound  thinking. 

Judge  Knapp  then  delivered  the  Annual  Address,  printed  on 
pages  1-15  of  this  volume. 

Session  of  Saturday  Afternoon,  April  5. 

Topic :     ' '  T/ie  Housing  Problem . ' ' 

The  President  of  the  Academy,  in  introducing  the  presiding 
officer  of  the  afternoon,  said: 

Members  of  the  Academy,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen. 

It  is  fortunate  for  us,  both  as  members  of  the  Academy  and  as 
citizens  of  Philadelphia,  that  when  a  subject  of  great  importance 
is  to  be  discussed  by  our  organization,  we  are  always  able  to  call 
upon  some  citizen  of  Philadelphia  whose  interest  in  the  subject, 
whose  work,  whose  activity  along  these  special  lines  enable  him 
to  preside  over  our  deliberations  with  the  authority  that  the  sub- 
ject calls  for.  I  have  very  great  pleasure  in  presenting  to  you  this 
afternoon  as  presiding  officer  the  Honorable  William  W.  Porter, 
Justice  of  the  Superior  Court  of  Pennsylvania,  in  whose  hands  I  now 
place  the  meeting. 

Judge  Porter,  in  introducing  the  Honorable  Robert  W. 
De  Forest,  said: 

We  Philadelphians  are  apt  to  pride  ourselves  on  the  descriptive 
title  which  others  have  given  to  our  city  and  which  we  have  adopted, 
namely,  that  it  is  a  city  of  homes.  This  is  true  of  it  to-day.  It 
has  ever  been  true.  But  none  of  us  can  shut  his  eyes  to  the  facts 
that  the  population  of  the  poor  and  the  vicious  has  become  con- 
gested in  certain  sections  of  the  city,  and  that  tenement  houses, 


Appendix  301 

unknown  to  us  for  many  years,  are  intruding  in  considerable 
numbers.  To  us  Philadelphians,  however,  the  topic  for  discussion 
would  have  greater  significance  had  it  been  made  the  "Homing 
Problem"  instead  of  the  "Housing  Problem."  The  workingman's 
struggle  has  ever  been,  in  Philadelphia,  not  for  a  "house"  in  the 
sense  of  a  room  in  a  tenement,  but  for  a  home  where  within  the 
four  walls  he  may  know  privacy  and  proprietorship.  We  have 
been  wont  to  say  that  a  man's  home  is  his  castle  and  that  he  would 
die  in  a  struggle  for  its  protection.  This  may  yet  be  said  of  the 
home  owner  who  is  a  house  owner.  But  there  is  no  instance  on 
record,  known  to  me,  where  there  has  been  any  serious  loss  of  life 
in  the  defence  of  a  room  in  a  boarding-house  or  tenement. 

It  is  with  great  pleasure  that  I  introduce  to  you  the  first  par- 
ticipant in  the  discussion  of  the  topic  before  us,  Hon.  Robert  W. 
De  Forest,  Tenement  House  Commissioner  of  Greater  New  York, 
a  gentleman  who  comes  from  a  city  which  has  had  to  meet  the 
problem  of  housing  the  poor  in  its  most  difficult  form,  a  gentleman 
who,  notwithstanding  his  large  professional  obligations  and  duties 
and  the  time  required  by  them,  has  been  able  to  give  much  thought 
and  useful  labor  to  the  attempted  solving  of  what  is,  up  to  the 
present  time,  only  a  partially  solved  problem. 

Mr.  De  Forest  then  presented  his  paper,  which  is  printed  on 
pages  81-95  <^f  this  volume. 

In  introducing  Miss  Ad  dams,  Mr.  Porter  said: 

There  was  a  time  when  true  charity,  as  we  understand  it,  was 
unknown.  The  knowledge  and  practice  of  it  came  only  with 
Christian  civilization.  The  impulse  to  do  for  others  was  first  and 
strongest  felt  by  women.  The  early  administration  of  charity  by 
them  was,  however,  largely  of  the  heart,  rather  than  of  the  under- 
standing. The  time  is  here  when  women,  with  hearts  just  as  warm 
in  the  work,  have  tempered  their  enthusiasm  with  cool,  deep, 
serious,  conscientious  thought.  These  women  are  furnishing  to  us 
the  best  type  of  the  best  citizenship  in  the  department  of  altruistic 
work. 

It  is  with  pleasure  that  I  introduce  to  you  a  woman  who  ex- 
emplifies what  I  have  asserted;  a  woman  who  has  been  at  the  head 
of  a  charitable  work  which  has  accomplished  wonders;  a  woman 
who  has  thought,  wrought  and  written  well.  It  is  with  very  great 
pleasure  that  I  present  to  you  one  who  will  speak  on  the  "  Housing 
Problem  in  the  City  of  Chicago,"  Miss  Jane  Addams,  of  Hull  House. 


302  The  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 

Miss  Addams'  address  will  be  found  on  pages  97-107  of  this 
volun.e. 

Mr.  Porter  then  introduced  Mr.  Nathaniel  B.  Crenshaw,  uho 
presented  the  results  of  an  investigation  b}"  the  Octavia  Hill 
Association  into  the  Housing  Problem  in  Philadelphia.  The  paper 
read  is  jointed  on  pages  109—120  of  this  volume. 

The  President  of  the  Academy,  in  closing  the  session,  said: 

In  c^Iosing  the  meeting  I  desire  to  express  to  the  speakers  of  the 
afternoon,  as  well  as  to  the  presiding  officer,  the  sincere  thanks  of 
the  Academy,  and  I  feel  that  I  am  simply  giving  expression  to  }'our 
feelings  when  I  say  that  we  all  go  away  with  new  ideas  and  a  new 
inspiration  in  the  work  of  bettering  social  conditions. 

Session  of  Saturday  Evening,  April   5. 

Subject:     ''Industrial  Conciliation   and  Arbitration ;  Its  Possibilities 

and  Limitations. ' ' 

In  giving  the  meeting  into  the  hands  of  the  presiding  officer  of 
the  evening,  Mr.  Charles  Custis  Harrison,  the  President  of  the 
Academy  said: 

Members  of  the  Academy,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen. 

We  have  much  of  importance  to  hear  this  evening  and  there  is 
therefore  little  time  for  formal  introductions.  I  have  the  honor  of 
presenting  to  you,  as  presiding  officer  of  the  evening,  Dr.  Charles 
Custis  Harrison,  Provost  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania. 

Dr.  Harrison,  in  introducing  Senator  Hanna,  said: 
Ladies  and  Gentlemen. 

The  meeting  to-night  has  to  do  with  the  questions  which  relate 
to  the  maintenance  of  industrial  peace  or  to  the  restoration  of  peace 
relationships  in  industrial  relations  if  they  shall  be  disturbed. 
Perhaps  I  may  say  that  question  has  peculiar  interest  to  myself 
entirely  outside  of  my  academic  connections,  because  many  3^ears 
before  I  entered  the  service  of  the  University  I  was  myself  a  large 
employer  of  labor.  One  of  the  testimonials,  perhaps  the  testi- 
monial which  I  most  value  of  any  which  I  have  received,  was  one 
which  the  two  thousand  men  in  our  service  gave  to  us  at  the  time 
we  went  out  of  business . 

We  do  not  realize  that  the  conditions  under  which  we  are  living 
are  totally  different  from  those  of  twenty-five  years  ago.     During 


Appendix  303 

almost  all  my  business  life,  and  I  suppose  during  Senator  Ilanna's 
business  life,  the  maxim  on  which  business  was  conducted  was  that 
competition  was  the  life  of  trade,  and  there  was  a  constant  struggle 
of  competition  between  producer  and  producer  and  between  man 
and  man  for  a  position,  and  it  is  only  within  a  few  3^ears  that  it  has 
dawned  upon  the  mind  of  the  world  that  another  economic  maxim 
might  have  weight,  the  maxim  that  where  combination  is  possible, 
competition  is  impossible.  We  are  working  now  under  that 
maxim,  and  so  we  have  federations  of  labor  and  we  have  federations 
of  capital.  So  long  as  justice  is  not  universal  there  will  be  a  conflict 
of  interests  between  labor  and  capital,  and  the  practical  question 
seems  to  be,  how  to  bring  these  two  interests  together. 

All  these  matters  are  really  solvable  only  in  a  practical  way. 
Most  people  need  a  mediator — somebody  to  intervene.  We  know, 
ourselves,  even  in  the  matter  of  the  rental  or  buying  of  a  house,  a 
man  is  often  not  willing  to  disclose  himself  fully  and  must  employ 
a  third  party.  The  practical  question  is,  how  to  get  the  men 
together,  because  in  that  way  difficulties  are  settled  and  only  in  that 
way.  Whosoever  takes  a  part  in  preserving  industrial  peace  or 
in  adjusting  the  conditions  as  between  employer  and  employed 
confers  an  extraordinary  benefit  upon  the  whole  community. 

In  everything  the  man  is  greater  than  the  scheme.  Whatone 
man  finds  impossible  to  do,  another  man  succeeds  in  doing.  The 
first  speaker  of  the  evening  is  Senator  Hanna,  a  man  who  translates 
his  oratory  into  action.  He  has  consented  to  add  to  the  extraor- 
dinary responsibilities  of  state,  which  he  has  borne  for  so  many 
years,  the  duty  of  being  one  of  the  members  of  a  board  of  concilia- 
tion or  arbitration,  and  I  have  the  very  great  pleasure  of  presenting 
him  to  you. 

Senator  Hanna's  address  is  printed  in  full  on  pages  19-26  of 
this  volume. 

The  next  speaker  of  the  evening  was  Mr.  Samuel  Gompers,  who 
spoke  on  "Limitations  of  Conciliation  and  Arbitration."  In  in- 
troducing Mr.  Gompers,  the  presiding  officer  said: 

Ladies  and  Gentlemen. 

I  shall  now  introduce  as  the  next  speaker  the  President  of 
the  American  Federation  of  Labor,  who  has  devoted  his  life  since 
boyhood  towards  the  betterment  of  the  laboring  classes,  and  not 
only  towards  that  question  alone,  but  also    to  the  philosophical 


304  The  Annals  of  the  Ainei'ican  Academy 

side  of  everything  which  has  to  do  with  questions  concerning 
labor.  I  am  glad  of  the  opportunity  of  introducing  to  you  Mr. 
Samuel  Gompers. 

The  address  of  Mr.  Gompers  is  printed  on  pages  27-34  of  this 
volume. 

The  speaker  following  Mr.  Gompers  was  the  Hon.  Oscar  S. 
Straus,  who  spoke  on  "The  Results  Accomplished  by  the  Indus- 
trial Department  of  the  National  Civic  Federation."  In  introduc- 
ing Mr.  Straus,  the  presiding  ofhcer  said: 

The  man  to  whom  was  referred  the  important  duty  of  appoint- 
ing the  Industrial  Committee  of  Thirty-six  of  the  Civic  Federation, 
to  which  reference  has  been  made  so  often  this  evening,  and  who, 
in  response  to  his  first  invitation  received  thirty-five  affirmative 
replies,  the  Hon.  Oscar  S.  Straus,  is  the  gentleman  wdiom  I  now 
have  the  pleasure  of  introducing. 

The  address  of  Mr.  Straus  is  printed  in  full  on  pages  35-42 
of  this  volume. 

The  last  speaker  of  the  evening  was  Mr.  William  H.  Pfahler, 
who  spoke  on  "Co-operation  of  Labor  and  Capital."  The  paper 
read  by  Mr.  Pfahler  is  printed  in  full  on  pages  43-58  of  this  vol- 
ume. 

Respectfully  submitted, 

Leo  S.  Rowe,  Chairman, 
Joseph  G.  Rosengarten, 
John  H.  Converse, 
James  B.  Dill, 
Stuart  Wood, 
Simon  N.  Patten, 
J.  Gordon  Gray, 
Clinton  Rogers  Woodruff, 
Joseph  M.  Gazzam, 
Edward  T.  Devine, 
James  T.  Young, 
William  H.  Allen, 
Special  Committee  on  Sixtli  Annual  Meeting 


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